Trading Yesterday
by The Last Letter
Summary: Ty Borden arrives at Heartland Ranch, running from himself and a past he won't admit to. The last thing he expects is to find a family broken over a loss they don't understand, and to find himself holding the answer that will heal them.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

Amy Fleming burst into the barn, her long blonde hair whipping around her face in the brisk fall air. Her mother, Marion, looked up as her daughter burst in. Justice, the horse Marion was untacking shifted uncomfortably – shaking under his saddle – he wanted his equipment off.

"Hi, honey. Have a good day at school?"

"No," Amy sulked, leaning against a stall door. Her grandfather's horse, Paint, swung his head over the half door, curiously nibbling at her hair. "The teachers suck and they don't understand me and it gets so hard and –"

"Deep breath," Marion advised.

Amy heaved in and out, capturing Paint's warm head in her arms. "I wish that I could just stay at Heartland all day. Can't I just start working now? We both know I'm never going to do anything else."

Marion raised an eyebrow, finally ridding Justice of his saddle. "Education is important."

"I just wish it was interesting," Amy returned. "Especially math. Why is that a thing?"

"Because education is important," Marion reiterated, mother that she was. "Is Jen still coming over to go riding?"

"Is the sky blue?"

"It's more of a grey today," Marion hummed, teasing her daughter, who crossed her arms over her chest. "I already brought in Hutch for you to take."

"Thanks!" Amy smiled. "I better get him tacked, she'll probably be over soon."

"Don't take too long," Marion warned her as Amy grabbed a grooming kit. "The weather is supposed to get bad later and I don't want you riding around in it."

"We'll be extra careful," Amy promised. "Won't we, Hutch?"

Marion rolled her eyes, running a brush over Justice. Amy was her mother's daughter, without a doubt. Spunky and charming, horse obsessed and passionate, mother and daughter shared almost all of the same traits. Including a dash of stubbornness – although Marion secretly thought that Amy had her father's temper, not that it was something that she would say aloud. She put Justice out in the field and then returned to watch Amy tack Hutch; the little roan kicking as she did up his girth. Amy had been expecting it though, and he didn't kick with any intent to hurt her, so there was no harm done. Marion had just passed Amy her helmet when Jen clattered into the yard, already on her own horse.

"Hey Marion," the fifteen year old called to her friend's mother. "How are you?"

"Great," Marion replied. "How are you?"

"Same old," Jen shrugged. "Can't complain."

"Ready to go?" Amy asked, hopping on Hutch.

"Not too long," Marion warned as Jen and Amy started moving.

"Don't worry Mom!" Amy called, twisting in her saddle to look at her parent. "Have a little faith in us."

Marion could only shake her head as the two girls trotted down the long drive, their voices drifting back to her on the wind.

"So, when does Soraya get back?" Jen asked. "Next Thursday or next Friday?"

"Try Saturday," Amy scoffed. "Listen much?"

"Maybe I've got different things to worry about," Jen said coyly, biting her lip.

"Oh, like what?" Amy pressed.

"Maybe a boy," Jen revealed.

"Who?" Amy asked.

"I'll tell you if you catch me!" Jen decided, spurring her horse forward.

Amy's jaw dropped for a moment before she urged Hutch after the front running horse. The small roan bucked for a moment underneath of her until he settled under her hand, chasing after Jen. Amy didn't know if Hutch would be able to make up for the ground that Jen had already acquired on her own leggy horse, but what Hutch lacked in ability he made up for with spirit, and before long, he was nipping at Jen's heels. Amy turned him slightly to the right so that she was riding closely beside Jen, reaching out and tagging her friend's sleeve.

"Got ya!" She trumpeted. "Now, who's the guy?"

Jen slowed down, finally heaving a sigh. "Well … you know Charlie?"

"No!" Amy gasped. "_No! _Like, English class Charlie? _What_?"

"Is that bad? I knew it was bad."

"I didn't mean it like it was bad," Amy assured her quickly. "At _all_. I was just … surprised. I don't really know him, but I'm sure he's a good guy."

"The best guy has been taken by you!" Jen exclaimed.

"Jesse? He's not my boyfriend, not really. We're … talking."

"It's better than utter silence," Jen pointed out. "He's cute. As long as he doesn't have the Stanton attitude …"

"He doesn't act anything like Ashley!" Amy protested.

Jen opened her mouth to respond, but Amy shushed her. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Jen asked, keeping her voice down.

"_That_," Amy said, and then Jen heard what her friend did – the desperate, rasping whinny of a horse. "Come on – it's coming from this way!"

Urging Hutch to pick up the pace, Amy headed toward the sound, Jen close behind her. They turned up a driveway, but Amy wasn't sure whose property it was. She could see sagging fences as they continued down the long drive, finally coming upon the house. It was rundown, and there was no one in sight. She and Jen paused in the driveway, the abandoned silence pressing down on them.

"This is Mr. Mallen's property," Jen murmured.

Before Amy could ask Jen to clarify who Mallen was, she heard the horse again. Her attention was drawn to the little barn – one with a sagging roof. Fear and fury seized Amy's heart. If this property was as neglected and empty as it appeared to be, someone – Mallen? – had left this horse alone. If she and Jen hadn't come across the isolated property, the horse could have been long dead before anyone had noticed its presence.

She brought Hutch over to one of the sturdier looking fence posts and dismounted, tying his reins around the top of the post.

"Amy, what are you doing?" Jen shouted.

"Shh," Amy said. "I need to check on the horse."

"Is that really such a good idea?" Jen called, but Amy ignored her.

She stepped up to the weather beaten doors. She could see a hole in the bottom, likely made by the horse trying to kick his way free. There was a heavy board on the doors, keeping them shut, but it was easy enough for her to lift it free and pry open the barn door enough to look inside. Amy was immediately hit by the stench of horse manure and urine. The horse had been locked up for days, maybe even a week or more. It took her a moment of staring into the black interior to actually see the horse, though. Muscular but thin, the horse was as black as the inside of the barn. He shifted angrily, throwing his head back at the unexpected light. Amy felt her heart begin to hammer as he reared up, his forelegs striking out toward her, his head nearly bumping the ceiling. He was beautiful.

Then he began to charge.

She slammed the door shut, eyes wide. She had barely gotten the board back into place when the horse smashed against the doors, trying to escape. She wished that she had another option, something other than putting him back in the dark. But she couldn't handle him on her own, and she couldn't just let him out – he would hurt himself, or someone else would. Her only option now was who it always was – her mother.

"Amy?" Jen asked, maneuvering her horse closer. "Are you okay?"

Amy nodded. "But I have to get home. He needs help."

Jen pointed upward. "The clouds are getting thicker. The bad weather is coming. It won't be safe to go out soon."

"Then I'll just have to make it back soon," Amy retorted. She brought Hutch's reins back over his head, before boosting herself into his saddle. The slight horse danced underneath of her, unnerved by the desperate voice of the horse still locked inside the barn. "Let's go!"

They loped down the Mallen's driveway, but had to slow down when they reached the road. Rain had begun to fall, unnerving the horses and making the pavement slippery. The road to the Mallen's had a deep bank over each side. The last thing either Amy or Jen needed to do was send themselves going flying over the edge – it would mean death. Once they were off the paved roads, Amy gave Jen a wave.

"I'm taking the shortcut home," she announced, pointing down the dirt path. "I need to make it before the weather gets any worse."

Jen nodded, agreeing. "Me too! Call me later about the horse, whether you go or not, okay?"

"Okay," Amy said, "but we _will_ be going. I can't leave him there, Jen. He needs me, I know it."

"Stay safe!"

"You too!"

Amy turned Hutch down the dirt path, as the rain began to pour even harder. She let him go as fast as she dared, but not as fast as she would have liked. Hutch was a bit of a nervous horse, and he wasn't liking the rain. They were almost home – the lights of the barn and ranch house in sight – when the first clap of thunder sounded. Hutch bucked, nearly throwing Amy from the saddle, his feet sliding in the mud when he landed. He shied from the slippery ground, dancing to the side.

"Easy," Amy murmured. "We're almost there."

She kept one hand on his warm, slick neck, keeping him moving forward toward his stall. He followed her lead, and in no time, they were inside, dismounting. Jack poked his head out of the barn office, giving her a look.

"Your mother and I have been waiting for you; we've been worried," he said to Amy.

"Sorry Grandpa!" Amy said. "Where is Mom? I _need_ to talk to her."

Jack twitched his moustache, as was his habit. "I'll go and get her for you. You're lucky you got home before the bad weather really started."

Amy nodded, wiping Hutch down as best as she could before turning him into his stall. By the time she was done, Marion was standing the doorway, a rain jacket on and another in her hand for her daughter.

"I told you not to take long," she said in her best parental voice.

"Mom! We found a horse," Amy cried, launching into an explanation. "He's alone, underfed, probably dehydrated, and he's so scared. He needs us to go get him!"

"It is storming out," Marion argued, pointing outside. "It would be hard to deal with such a horse under the best of circumstances."

"Please," Amy begged, stepping closer to Marion. "He might not make it to better circumstances. He's so badly off. He needs us. Isn't that what we do? Help horses who need us. He could hurt himself in this storm."

Marion took a long look in her daughter's eyes. "You're right. The trailer should still be hooked up to the truck. I'll go get the keys." She handed Amy the extra rain jacket in her hand. "And I need you to collect some of the remedies. You know what he needs, right?"

"Right," Amy agreed, listing off the natural herbs and scents her mother would always use around nervous, panicking horses. Things that would make him calm, even put him in a sedated state. She rushed into the office, picking the things off the shelves, shoving them into the pockets of her rain jacket, before running out to the truck.

Marion was already in the driver's seat, waiting. Once Amy had her seatbelt pulled over her body, Marion put the truck into drive, the wipers already going furiously. Amy sat in silence as her mother drove, giving directions to the Mallen farm when necessary. The finally pulled into the driveway, the place as abandoned and empty as it had been when Amy and Jen had rode away.

Marion turned the truck off. Over the periodic sound of thunder and the loud beat of the rain, she and Amy could hear the horse. Marion took a few of the items from Amy's pocket and jumped out of the truck. She was about to warn her daughter to stay inside, but saw that it was no use – Amy was already standing out in the rain, her strawberry blonde hair sticking to her wet cheeks.

Marion sidled up to the barn door, getting Amy to help her release the wood.

"Go open the back of the trailer for me," Marion requested. Amy nodded silently, her pale face flashing as lightning struck.

Amy ran off to do as her mother asked. When the trailer ramp had been lowered, she was about to make a mad dash back to the barn, to see if she could be of any assistance, when she saw the head of the horse appear, Marion's hand attached to his dirty halter – one that Amy could see was much too small for him. His ears were flat against his head, and he kept trying to fight Marion, but she wouldn't allow it. She had him lined up to go in the trailer when a thunder rumbled. He tore his head away from Marion, preparing to bolt. Amy immediately appeared to one side of him, preventing him from going that direction. With Marion so close to him on his other side, the horse had no choice but to run into the trailer. Without any verbal communication, Marion and Amy both lifted the trailer ramp together, closing the horse in. Amy could hear him crying out; could hear him beating his hooves against the side of the trailer.

"Amy!" Marion shouted. "In the truck!"

Amy fled for the passenger door. She didn't know if she had ever felt so relieved to be somewhere dry. Even if the truck was shaking from the dark horse's panic.

"I can't believe someone would do that to a horse," Marion spat as she turned up the heat. "That's despicable."

"He must have been alone for weeks," Amy cried.

"If I ever get my hands on that Mallen character," Marion growled.

The only thing that could set off the usually sweet-tempered woman was abusers. She wouldn't stand for the mistreatment of any person or animal. She stopped herself from completing the threat, needing to focus on the road more. They were on the dangerous stretch, with the steep bank on each side of the road. Marion felt herself straddling the center line, trusting that no one else was crazy enough to venture out in this weather. She was afraid of straying too close to one side, worried that the horse's kicking would send them all tumbling down the bank. If she had been going a little bit faster, or a little bit slower, what happened next could have avoided.

Mother, daughter, and horse heard the _crack_ at the same time – two seconds before the tree fell across the road. Having no other option, Marion slammed on the brakes, sending truck and trailer spinning along the wet road. She tried to turn the wheel, but the vehicle had gained its own momentum, and was careening toward the bank. Before they had even tipped down the hill, Marion knew that it was going to happen.

"_Amy_!" She shouted, at the same time Amy screamed, "_Mom_!"

They were tumbling down the bank, the horse crying and fighting as best as he could in his enclosed space. Marion was too paralyzed to do anything. Amy didn't know what she could do. There was nothing but darkness stretching out before her.

"Mom!" She shouted again, turning her head and reaching for her parent.

And then everything went black.

*Two*Weeks*Later*

Soft blue eyes opened, unnoticed by the young, dark haired woman and the aging man waiting in the hospital room, waiting for that very thing to happen. The woman lying in the bed felt a sharp pain rage across her head, and gasped, finally attracting the attention of the two people. They raced to her side, one on her left and one on her right, both reaching for her hand.

"How are you, honey?" Jack asked, reaching out to twirl a piece of long blonde hair around his finger. "Are you okay?"

"Oh my god," the dark haired woman, Lou, Jack's eldest granddaughter, breathed. "We've been so worried about you, Mom."

Marion looked around, trying to process why her eldest daughter – the one who lived in New York, not Hudson, Alberta – was next to her. Why her father was next to her. Where was Amy? Where was her other daughter? If she wasn't here, surely one of them should be with her.

"Amy?" Marion croaked. Maybe she was in the bathroom. Maybe she was getting a drink. What time was it? Maybe she was at school.

"Mom," Lou said, her light eyes beginning to worry.

Jack held up his hand. He didn't want Lou to have to bear the burden of releasing the news. He sat down next to Marion, looking his only child in the eye. "Amy didn't make it through the accident."

_The accident_, Marion remembered. _Careening down the hill; no way to stop. Amy calling for her, looking toward her daughter. One pale hand, stretched out into the night. A flash of lightning; Amy's impossibly young face, a trickle of blood down one cheek._

"Amy," Marion repeated, as if she hadn't heard her father, or she was trying to deny the truth.

"I'm sorry," Jack managed, his heart breaking as Marion began to dissolve, pulled apart by grief.

_Amy._

**Welcome to my first multi-chapter Heartland fic! I know details don't _exactly_ match up (reasons hopefully obvious ...) but stick with me. It's going to be a bumpy ride!**

**~TLL~**


	2. Chapter 2

*Several*Months*Later*

Ty Borden stopped his ancient blue truck at the end of the long drive, double checking the map that Clint Riley, his probation officer, had handed to him only a few hours previous. Yep, it was just as he'd feared. This _was_ his destination. Ty had never seen such a rural place in his life. He had spent his entire life being a juvenile delinquent in Calgary, never really venturing outside its borders. But his life of petty crime had caught up to him, putting him into detention for a while. Now, he was out on probation and being released into the custody of a woman named Marion Fleming.

Ty didn't know a whole lot about her – just that she was in her forties, the same age as his own mother - , or the place that he was now going to be working at. He knew it was called Heartland and he knew they worked with horses. He didn't know what this Marion woman wanted with him. He didn't know jack all about horses.

Ty sighed and put his creaky truck back into drive. Whatever his fate was at this place, he was sure that it wouldn't be a good one. Or maybe it would. Maybe he would finally get what he had always wanted in life: to forget his past, to forget where he came from, to forget who he was, and why he was who he was. Ty would give anything to be someone else, even just for a moment, to feel relief from himself. But, as he pulled into the driveway, he realized that he would always be him.

There was no one in sight as he jumped out of his truck. He wondered if he should go knock on the door or try the barn (they were horse people, isn't that where they spend most of their time?) when a woman appeared on the front porch. She was older than Ty, though likely only by a few years. This was how he knew that she wasn't Marion, the woman he had to report to. She cleared her long dark hair off her face, and walked down the steps toward him.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Um, I'm Ty Borden. I'm here to talk to Marion Fleming."

The woman raised her eyebrows. "I'm Lou Fleming, her daughter. I'm sorry, but my mother isn't taking any clients right now."

"I'm not a client," Ty said quickly.

"Then what are you?" Lou demanded, her piercing eyes unsettling Ty.

Unable to explain the arrangement made between Marion and Clint, Ty handed Lou the paperwork that was supposed to go to Marion. Lou thumbed through the documents with the grace of a professional businesswoman, navigating the legal speak with ease. Finally, she looked back up at Ty.

"She didn't mention you." Lou sighed. "Come on in. It's freezing out here."

It was always freezing in Alberta in the winter. Ty followed Lou into the big house, thankful for the wave of warmth that immediately swept over him. He sighed, kicking his boots off and hanging up his jacket as if he were already comfortable here. Lou waved him to the small kitchen table, telling him to wait there. Ty took a seat, relaxing into the wooden chair. This place had a very solid sense of home to it. It was a place of comfort. A place that Ty had never really had.

Lou appeared in front of him again, her eyes sad and apologetic. "I'm sorry, she's not up to seeing anyone. A lot has gone on recently, as I believe I already said."

Ty nodded, then asked, "So … what about the paperwork? About me staying here?"

"Staying isn't a problem," Lou assured him, taking the seat opposite him. "I'll go over the paperwork in a little more detail tonight, but my mother explained basically the same thing Clint Riley seems to say in the documents. We have horses year round, so even though we're not taking clients right now, there's still things for you to do."

"Okay, great. Thanks," Ty said in a rush. He hadn't realized until Lou said it was okay for him to remain at Heartland how heartbreaking it would have been to turn himself around.

"You'll be staying in the barn loft," Lou explained. "There's a room there."

The barn? Was he a horse now? "Sure," he agreed, because what else could he do when he was essentially moving in with them.

"Let's get you to the barn," she said, and gestured for him to follow.

Ty rose from the table and followed her back out in the cold.

"My grandfather, Jack, also lives here. Actually, I live in New York. I'm just here for an extended visit," Lou chattered. "He'll be the one to show you around the barn and talk to you about chores."

"I thought it was Marion who ran a horse business," Ty said. They paused at his truck so he could lift his single bag out of the back.

"She does. It's just a hard time right now." Lou reiterated her words from earlier, giving him no more details.

Ty nodded, accepting this. His whole life had been built on hard times. They stepped into the barn, and Ty wrinkled his nose at the scent. He'd never been around horses before. At least they smelled better than cows, he reasoned. Lou pointed to some horses as they walked through the small barn, saying that there were several more out in the field.

"That's Paint, Grandpa's horse. That's Copper. He's owned by us but our neighbour, Mallory, likes to come over and act like he's hers. If you see a twelve year old blonde running around, don't be afraid."

"Duly noted," Ty said with a bit of a laugh.

"And that's Pegasus, Mom's horse down at the end. She'll come in and see him at weird times, so don't be afraid of that either."

Ty looked down to the end of the aisle, where Pegasus had his great grey-white head stuck over his stall door. He looked old, gentle. The kind of horse that didn't intimidate him – not that Ty would admit to being intimidated. There was a clattering sound, and Ty realized with a start that Paint, Copper, and Pegasus weren't the only horses in the barn – there was a fourth. A black demon horse, the exact opposite of Pegasus, was kicking within his stall. Ty took a step back as the animal bared its yellowish teeth, screaming at him. Ty didn't even know horses _could_ scream.

"What the hell is that?" Ty demanded of Lou.

"That is Spartan. Don't touch him, don't go near him."

"Not a problem." Ty assured her.

"He's dangerous."

"If he's so dangerous, why is he here?"

Lou paused, then answered with a raw honesty that shocked Ty. "So Mom can watch him suffer." She turned her back on the horse. "Come on, I'll show you to the loft."

They climbed the rickety steps, and then they walked through the door. There wasn't much to the loft – a bed, a dresser, a surprising amount of plastic.

"It keeps the heat in," Lou said when he asked her about it. "It can get cold up here. If you need extra blankets, they're in the house. I'll show you where at dinner, okay?"

"Okay."

"You can shower in the house, and other things. You don't have to isolate yourself to the loft."

"I'll try not to."

Lou nodded. "Well, I'm going to get cooking. Grandpa is in town getting the feed order. When he comes back, you might want to help him. Getting on his good side early is important."

"Thanks," he said.

"No problem."

Lou left, leaving the scent of expensive perfume in the room. Ty wasn't exactly sure what to do with himself. He unpacked his bag into the dresser, but it didn't take long. He didn't have much, not that it was anything new to him. He paced around the room, inspecting the plastic. He poked at the comforter. He knew that Lou had said to not be a stranger in the house, but he felt like an intruder. Something was clearly wrong with Marion, and he didn't want to butt into their personal family business. That being said, he hoped whatever was going on wouldn't seriously impact his staying at Heartland. The last thing he wanted was to be sent back, not when he was so close to being set free.

He decided to go down into the barn. He traced his steps back down to the ground floor, looking around him. He ran his hand along the saddles attached to the wall and poked his head into the barn office but didn't touch anything. He had to earn their trust, and it would do no good for someone to find him poking around personal papers. He wandered back out in the main barn, and two of the horses were looking at him with interest. Copper was staring right at him, as if he expected Ty to do something weird, while Pegasus was just looking in Ty's general direction. Paint was lying down. Spartan wasn't moving, but after his earlier outburst, Ty was thankful for his silence.

Ty had just taken a step down toward Pegasus when he heard a scuffling noise behind him. He turned around, thinking that maybe it was Jack, the grandfather Lou had mentioned. Instead, standing in the barn door, Ty could see the silhouette of a girl. She wasn't as tall as Lou, and he could see the wisps of blonde hair blowing about her face. He wondered if it was Mallory, the neighbour that had been brought up to him not so long ago, but this figure was too tall, too graceful, to be that of the twelve year old girl.

"Hello?" He called. "I'm Ty Borden. I just got here."

The figure turned around so swiftly he didn't catch sight of her face. She left the barn and Ty took a few steps forward, about to chase after her. Lou hadn't spoken about anyone else living on the property, and from the way the girl had acted, she wasn't supposed to be here. Ty skidded around the side of the barn door, almost sliding on the snowy, icy ground, and almost smacked into an older man, who narrowed his eyes at Ty.

"Who the hell are you?" the man demanded.

"You must be Jack."

"I know who I am," the man growled. "Who are you?"

"I'm Ty."

"And what are you doing here?" Jack asked after a pause, speaking slowly as if Ty were too dumb-witted to understand him.

"Lou has my paperwork," Ty said quietly. "I work here now. It was arranged between Marion and my probation officer, Clint Riley, a few months ago."

Jack's salt-and-pepper moustache quivered as he pursed his lips in thought. "Grab some feed bags from the back of the truck," Jack instructed. "I'll show you where to put them."

Ty grabbed one of the heavy bags, slinging it over his shoulder. He adjusted to the weight and then trucked back into the barn, following Jack's instructions. He had to stray close to Spartan's stall with it, and the horse reared up and kicked out. Being closer to him than he had before, Ty could see that there were long scars across the horse's neck and back.

"What happened to him?" Ty asked Jack.

"Accident," Jack grunted. "Won't let a vet near him. We do what we can."

Ty looked at Jack. "Why not put him down?" Ty wondered if Jack would say something like Lou did when he'd asked her why the horse was here.

Jack looked away from Ty to the dark horse, who pinned his ears back and pawed at the ground. The old man let out a heavy sigh, then answered, "It doesn't matter to you."

Spartan snorted, retreating to the back of his stall. Ty watched him as the animal twitched uncomfortably under the human's gaze, thinking about Jack's comment. No, it might not matter personally to Ty why Spartan was here, but now that Ty was getting a good look at him, Ty could see _it._ Spartan had death sticking to his skin.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	3. Chapter 3

Ty had never imagined that horses could require so much work – or that he would be so sore afterward. He shuffled into the kitchen, wanting to take a shower before dinner. Lou was hand kneading dough at the counter. He said hello to her and was about to head to the bathroom, when the phone rang.

"Answer that, please," Lou requested. "My hands are a mess."

Ty picked up the phone, awkwardly saying, "Hello, Heartland." That was how he'd heard Lou answer the phone before, so he figured that it couldn't hurt.

"Who the hell is this?" The voice, a man's voice, demanded on the other end.

Ty wondered why the hell he kept getting asked that. "My name's Ty Borden. I work here."

"Lou around?" The voice asked.

"Just a sec." Ty tucked the phone into his shoulder, turning to Lou. "It's for you."

She raised her messy hands at him. "Who is it? Is it Carl?"

Ty put the phone back to his ear. "May I ask who's calling?"

"Tim."

"Tim," Ty repeated to Lou.

Her eyes went wide and she turned so pale that Ty thought that she was going to faint, and wondered if he could catch her before she hit the ground. She reached for the phone, her hand shaking violently. She took the phone from him, messy hands and all, and held it to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked, breathless.

Feeling like he was intruding, Ty backed away and went to take his shower.

(-.-)

Ty tossed and turned in his bed, trying to get back to sleep. It was Saturday morning, and Jack said that he could sleep in an extra hour, if he wanted. Ty had desperately wanted to – getting up early had _never_ been his forte – but he had woken up earlier than he normally did. It was only four-thirty in the morning and all he wanted was to _sleep_. He wondered if he had to pee, and maybe if he did go pee, then he could get to sleep.

But going to pee meant going to the house and it was cold out …

It would be worth it to go back to sleep.

Ty threw his legs over the side of the bed, shoving his bare feet into his boots. It wouldn't take that long to cross the yard. In the dark, he fumbled his way across the room, grabbing his jacket as he went. He pulled it on, shivering as he shoved his arms into the cool sleeves. Carefully, he descended to the ground floor, moving quietly. He didn't want to disturb Spartan.

Ever since Ty had seen him, _really_ seen what covered Spartan, he had come to hate the animal with an unbridled passion. Spartan was covered in death, and Ty _hated_ death. He had people who had been around death. He hated dead people. He hated everything that had to do with the damn word, and he could never escape it because he could _see_ it. He could see when people – or animals, like the damn horse – had been there when someone had died. It looked like a black, shimmering imprint on the skin, almost like the night sky. That's why it had been so hard to see on the black horse. He could also see dead people; he would talk to them, and get them to leave earth.

And he hated it. It was also one of the reasons why he hated his grandmother, because she could do it too. It was because of her that he had inherited the ability to see the dead, to see the mark death left on the world. Ty would give anything to not be able to do it; to view the world through a completely normal lens.

He was about to tiptoe to the front door when he heard a low humming. He froze, at first thinking that it was someone breaking into the barn, maybe to hurt him, and he clenched his fists. If there was something that Ty Borden knew how to do, it was fight. But then he remembered Lou's words – how Marion would come out to the barn at weird times to visit her horse. He hadn't met Marion yet, but maybe tonight was the night. He peered out into the main barn, and caught sight of the person. He knew immediately that it wasn't Marion – it was the girl that he had spotted on his first day, except this time he could see her face.

She was pretty, maybe fifteen years old. She had long blonde hair cascading down her back, the ends of it curled. Her face was slim, though her cheeks were full, not fat, but apple-like in a way that was calming. She was on the skinny side, but one of the things that struck Ty was how curiously she was dressed. She was wearing a long sleeved black cardigan over her black dress that rode up high toward her collarbone with the skirt falling mid-thigh. She had on black tights and tiny little black flats. Make-up covered her pretty face. She looked dressed to go out somewhere, not to be in a cold barn in the dead of night.

She was standing in the middle of the barn hallway, humming to herself. He watched as she turned her back to him, moving down to the back of the barn. She touched her hand to Pegasus' muzzle, and the moment she did, Spartan hurled himself against his stall door. Ty watched as she turned around, but she didn't appear afraid of Spartan, like any sane person was. Rather, there was a kind of smile on her face. She walked away from Pegasus, over to Spartan. Ty almost shouted at her to look out – that she was going to get bitten or worse – but the words died in his throat. The dirty, angry, wounded horse lowered his head, pressing himself against the girl's torso, as if they were old friends. She curled around him, and he could hear her cooing to him.

"My Spartan boy, my Spartan boy."

Ty watched with shocked eyes as she ran her fingers through his forelock, untangling dirt and dust that had gathered there. Spartan stood still, as if he were a child's pony rather than the spawn of Satan. He didn't know how long he had stood there watching the two of them, but finally the girl pressed a kiss between Spartan's eyes.

"I'll clean you better soon," the girl promised the horse. "I don't know why it seems like I can never make it out here lately."

She turned her back on Spartan and Ty shrunk into the shadows as she walked past where he was standing. She never looked in his direction as she walked out of the barn. Ty waited until he could no longer hear her footsteps on the concrete floor of the barn and then he headed to the door that she walked out of. He stepped out into the freezing night, but there was no sign of her. Ty stood there, swiveling his head from side to side, but there was no hint of the girl.

He grumbled under his breath, resolving to ask Lou about her in the morning. Though Lou was a little no-nonsense and she could be mildly terrifying, she was more welcoming than Jack. He almost turned back to the barn and his bed when Ty remembered the whole reason he had gotten up in the first place.

He still had to pee.

(-.-)

"Lou," Ty said as he stepped inside the house that morning for breakfast. "I need to ask you something."

Her head jackknifed up, and she looked more frazzled than usual. By this time in the morning, she was usually dressed and looking impeccably ready for the day. But today, she was in old sweatpants with dark rings around her eyes. "What?" She asked.

"The other day," Ty began slowly, "I saw a girl in the barn –"

"Was she blonde?" Lou interrupted him.

"Well, yeah," Ty admitted.

"Then it was just Mallory. I told you about her before. Twelve years old, our neighbour, sound familiar?" She slammed her empty coffee mug down on the table. "I have work to do and so do you."

Ty stuffed a piece of toast in his mouth and went back outside. He checked the list of chores that Jack had fallen into the habit of making for him. First item on the list: put Paint and Pegasus into the field. Ty had just completed the first task when an unfamiliar truck came in the driveway. Ty barely looked at it – he still hadn't been at Heartland long, a lot of the comings and goings were unfamiliar to him. He would have ignored it completely if the truck had stopped in front of the house, but it had rolled over in front of the barn. A man jumped out. He had dark skin and hair and was dressed in a vest and blue jeans.

"You must be Ty," the man said. "I'm Scott Cardinal. I'm the vet and a friend of Lou's."

"Hi," Ty said, shaking Scott's hand when it was offered.

"I'm here to check on Spartan," Scott explained after a moment, when it became clear that no one had told Ty that he was on his way over.

Ty raised his eyebrow. "It's your funeral."

Scott let out a long sigh. "It might be. Is there no progress being made?"

Ty shrugged. "No one ever goes near him."

Scott frowned, looking worried. "Marion isn't working with him? Lou said that she was trying to. That was the whole reason that I brought him here. Jack wouldn't let me put him down."

"I just got here. All I know is that I've never see that horse out of his stall. No one can even get near it." He hesitated, about to mention the blonde girl. If Scott and Lou were friends, maybe he would know who she was (because there was no way that she was the neighbour, Mallory, that Lou had insisted she was); maybe Scott could even tell him what was going on with Marion. But Scott was already talking about something else and walking into the barn.

Ty kept up with Scott, who walked straight toward Spartan with a confidence that most lacked when approaching the animal. Spartan's ears went back flat against his head when he spotted Scott, and he retreated to the far corner of his stall. He was a far cry from the animal that had been cuddling with the girl last night.

Scott leant his head into Spartan's stall for a moment, and Spartan screeched at him, lunging forward. Scott dodged the attack, but was shocked when someone yelled at him.

"Stop making him do that!"

Even Ty jumped. He twisted to see a little blonde head peeking out from Spartan's stall, glaring at the two men. Ty immediately assumed that she was Mallory Wells, which was only confirmed when Scott barked her name.

"Mallory! You scared me!"

"Well, Spartan scared me," Mallory retorted. "Thanks a lot, Scott."

She was almost exactly what Ty had pictured her as being, and she definitely _wasn't_ the girl that had had seen in the barn. She was short; baby fat still clinging to her; her cheeks red from the wind outside. She had Copper half tacked behind her, clearly getting ready to go out for a ride. Then, she turned her head.

"We haven't met," She said to Ty quickly. "I'm Mallory Wells. Neighbour; family friend; owner of Copper … In spirit," she added after Scott gave her a look.

"My name is Ty Borden. I work here."

"_Oh_," Mallory made a noise. "I'm usually here all the time but my parents dragged me on this totally lame trip across Canada because sometimes my dad is convinced that he can sing and goes on tour." She rolled her eyes. "And it's sad here."

"Mallory …" Scott said in a warning tone.

"It _is_," she argued. "It's _never_ been sad here before, not like this! Not even when Jack talks about Lyndy. This is Heartland, Scott. It's not supposed to be sad."

"I know," Scott said quietly. "But we have to be really tactful and careful. No one is okay, it's going to take a long time to heal and pointing out how different it is isn't going to help anyone."

"But it _is_ different," Mallory protested, her voice becoming high and thin. Ty could see tears building in her dark eyes. "Lou is _here_ instead of in New York. Jack somehow got _quieter_ and I don't know when the last time I actually _saw_ Marion was," her voice became shriller with every word, and her voice nearly cracked when she cried out, "And Amy's _dead._"

"Shh," Scott urged, but Ty's interest piqued.

He looked at the starry coating of death that Spartan carried, and then his gaze bounced between Mallory and Scott. "Who's Amy?"

Mallory looked horrified. "No one _told_ you?"

"It's not our place, just go for your ride," Scott tried to instruct Mallory, but she ignored him.

"I'll tell you all about her," she promised Ty, her voice surprisingly solemn. "My ride can wait."


	4. Chapter 4

Despite Scott's misgivings about discussing Amy, Ty moved closer to Mallory. Her deep brown eyes were sad as she began to speak.

"Amy is … _was_ Lou's younger sister. She was out for a ride one day with her friend and she heard a horse, one who needed her help." Mallory's eyes bounced from Ty's face to just over his shoulder, and without looking himself, Ty knew that she was glancing at Spartan. "She couldn't help him then, but she rode home and convinced Marion that they should go and get him, even though it was storming out. She and Marion managed to load the horse safely but on the drive back, a tree fell on the road in front of them. Marion swerved to avoid it but she went off the road, down a steep hill. When they crashed at the bottom, Marion and the horse were alive, but Amy wasn't."

Mallory's eyes were overflowing with grief as she related the story of Amy's final hours, her child's voice becoming slow and soft as she thought back to the friend that, not so long ago, had been alive and vibrant, on a mission to save a horse because that's who Amy was.

"Marion's locked herself up ever since," Mallory whispered. "Lou moved back, apparently temporarily, until Marion gets better. Jack … I know he seems like a grumpy old man but you wouldn't believe how different he was." She swallowed. "Spartan was the horse. Scott says the accident traumatized him, and he was really hurt afterward, wasn't he?"

Scott nodded. "I was going to put him out of his misery. I didn't think it was fair to make him continue to live. But Jack … Jack said that Marion needed him, so I brought him here, and I've been tending to him as best as he can, but he's just going to stay like this until someone helps him."

"Mallory," Ty began, beginning to put the pieces together. "What did Amy look like?"

"Taller than me, blonde, really pretty," Mallory described wistfully. "Do you want to see her?"

Ty nodded and Mallory let herself out of Copper's stall. Ty stepped out of the way as she flitted passed him, into the barn office that Ty had never really stepped foot in. He followed her inside now, though, eyes tracing over the papers that he'd glanced at on his first day. Covering the walls were photographs of horses, ribbons, achievements, and diagrams of horses. Mallory went over to the desk, reaching into the top drawer. She pulled out a silver frame, passing it over to Ty.

"This was taken in August," she explained hoarsely.

Ty took the picture, feeling his heart sink into his stomach as he stared at the image of the pretty blonde girl, sitting double astride Pegasus, an older blonde woman who looked just like her sitting behind her. The girl, Amy, was the girl that he had seen twice in the barn now and she was dead. With this revelation came confusion. If Amy were dead, he should be able to tell. He'd _always_ been able to tell, what with the black film that would drift over people's skin, broken dots that looked like stars woven into the darkness. She didn't have that. If she was dead and he was seeing her, he should have been able to tell that she was so.

"She looks … really nice," Ty finally said, handing the picture back to Mallory. It would be creepy if he stood there for too long, staring at a deceased stranger.

"She was," Mallory assured him confidently. "She was basically like my sister."

"It must be hard," Ty commented.

Mallory nodded, her face seeming to cave in on itself. "I'm going to take Copper out now … Want to come?" She offered.

Ty shook his head. "I have chores to do."

Never mind the fact that he couldn't ride.

"Okay. Well, I'll see you around!" She crept back to Copper, expertly putting a bridle around his head. She led him out of the stall and into the yard.

As he heard her ride away, Ty went back out into the barn, where Scott was still in a stare down with Spartan. The horse slammed his foot down against the stall floor every time Scott got close.

"We need to get him out of there," Scott decided.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Ty asked, and, after seeing the look on Scott's face, Ty wished he hadn't said a damn thing.

After setting up a makeshift chute, Ty was standing ready by Spartan's stall door, somehow ending up the one to open it and let the angry gelding out. Scott was standing along the side of the chute that opened into the yard, just in case Spartan decided to break free instead of heading straight to the round pen that Scott and Ty were trying to herd him into.

"Now!" Scott called, and Ty pulled the door open.

Spartan darted forward immediately, stopping as his feet clattered on the barn floor. Ty slammed the stall door shut, both so that Spartan couldn't go backward into it and so that the noise would spur the horse on. Just as Scott had predicted, Spartan shied from the noise, his flight response kicking in. He barreled down the chute. For a moment, it looked like he would break free toward Scott, but the young vet made a loud noise, trumpeting from the back of his throat. Spartan tossed his head, and danced forward. Scott shut the gate to the round pen, immediately climbing the slats to see Spartan better. After a moment of hesitation, Ty joined him, sitting at the top of the fence with Scott.

Spartan looked even worse in the daylight than he did in the dark light of his stall. The bright death spots gleamed even bright under the sun. Ty was sure the horse looked blacker to him than he did to Scott, because of the way Amy's death had affected his appearance.

"Scott!"

Both vet and boy turned at the sound of the shout. Jack was storming across the yard, eyes bulging with anger.

"What are you doing with that horse?"

"Nothing!" Scott cried out, jumping down to the ground. "I just let him out of his stall. You can't keep him cooped up forever."

"It's not for forever," Jack spat, and then his eyes locked on Ty. "Find something else to do," he growled at the teenager.

Ty was taken aback for a moment, but then he jumped down from the fence as well. He gave Scott a sympathetic glance and then sidled over to the house. Lou was standing in the kitchen window, gazing out over the yard, an unreadable expression on her face. But she nearly jumped out of her skin as Ty slipped into the kitchen.

"Do you mind if I use the phone?" Ty asked.

Lou shrugged. "Go for it."

Ty located the phone and then sequestered himself in the bathroom – a place where he knew no one would interrupt him. This wasn't the kind of conversation that Ty wanted anyone to overhear. He had never told anyone about his ability, not outside of his family. It wasn't something that he wanted to put on display, because he knew that not a lot of people would understand it, and would probably call him a phony or a manipulator. The issue was that Ty had no one to turn to when it came to his dealings with the dead, except for one person: Grandmother.

Grandmother was his father's mother. After his parents had divorced, she had barely spoken to Ty. He had reached out to her once or twice, usually for the same reasons: the death that they could both see. When he was young, Ty had half expected Grandmother to take him in. She knew that Brad, his father, was a mean drunk and that his mother's new boyfriend like to hit more than walls. But Grandmother had turned a blind eye to it. And once, when Ty had called to tell her that he was in trouble (the only time he had reached out to her for something like that) she had scoffed and said that she had expected it – after all, look at his parents.

Even so, he hoped her number hadn't changed.

"Borden residence."

"Grandmother," Ty said quickly. "It's Ty."

"Having only one grandson, I know exactly who you are," Grandmother said coldly. "What do you want? If it's bail money, I don't have it."

"It's not about bail money," Ty ground out, already feeling the impulse to hang up on her. "I have a question."

"So ask it."

"What if a person is dead but doesn't look it? You know how ghosts always have that black thing around them … What if they don't?"

Grandmother sighed. "Do you know for sure they're dead?"

"Yes."

"Do they know they're dead?"

Ty stopped. "I don't … I don't know."

He could almost hear Grandmother's eye roll. "Have you made contact?"

"No …"

"Then do that! The goal here is to get people to cross over, Ty."

"I know!"

"Then do that," Grandmother suggested.

And then, before Ty could even get another word in edgewise, he heard the click of the phone. She'd hung up on him! He wasn't surprised; maybe a little disappointed, though. Still, he opened the door to the bathroom, walking out and returning the phone to its charging station. Amy not knowing she was dead _would_ explain it – and he should have thought of it himself, instead of calling her. He was sure that she'd be annoyed about that phone call into the next century … so maybe it was good that they weren't close.

He didn't see anyone in the house, so he stepped out on the porch, wondering if he was allowed back outside yet or if Jack would banish him. There was no sign of anyone in the yard either, though. Scott's truck was gone, but Spartan was still doing laps around the pen. Ty thought that the horse seemed a little happier to be outside, but then he thought he saw a pair of human legs standing inside the pen, belonging to someone that Spartan wouldn't charge at or retreat from. Ty knew there was only one person – only one _ghost_ – that Spartan wouldn't lash out at.

He crossed the yard, checking over his shoulders for Jack and Lou, even Marion, as he went. But there was no one. He approached the boards of the pen slowly, trying not to attract attention to himself, but Spartan noticed him. The horse's ears went flat against his head and he took a few steps backward, trying to get away from the spot Ty was now leaning against. Amy, as predicted, was standing in the pen with him, wearing the same black outfit, the outfit she was buried in, that she had been the few other times he had seen her.

"What's going on?" He heard her ask the horse, her voice holding a lyrical quality. "Don't act sassy."

Spartan raised his head and bared his teeth at Ty, and Amy finally turned around to face him. Ty felt his heart skip a beat as he finally got a good look at her face under the sunlight. Even though he knew who she was, he couldn't deny that Amy was beautiful.

"Who are you?" She asked, her voice taking on a heated quality that reminded Ty of Jack. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," Ty said quietly, not sure how he could go about breaking the news to her. He'd never had to do this before. All of the other ghosts that he'd met before had already known about their condition, and were mostly happy to receive his help.

"No you don't," Amy argued, putting her hands on her hips. "I _live_ here. I would know if you worked here."

"That's the thing –" Ty started, but was interrupted by a shout.

"Ty! Ty! Can you come in here please?" Lou's voice erupted from the barn.

"Coming!" Ty called, turning his head in the direction of the barn. When he finally looked back to where Amy was standing, she was already gone.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	5. Chapter 5

Ty ducked into the barn. Jack was red-faced, standing near the back of the barn, while Lou was standing by the entrance to the office, between Ty and Jack. Ty was glad that she was standing there. If Jack decided to attack him, he'd have to go through his granddaughter first, and Ty just didn't see that happening. The old man glared angrily at Spartan's empty stall.

"Why did you think it was all right to let that horse out?" Jack demanded.

"Scott's a vet," Ty blustered defensively. "I assumed he was to be trusted, that he had your permission! I'm not at fault here."

He thought that Lou looked a little sympathetic.

"The horse was miserable inside that stall anyway," Ty pointed out. "It's disgusting in there and Spartan's disgusting."

"Scott said the same thing, Grandpa," Lou butted in quickly. "Maybe … maybe it's not fair to Spartan."

Jack's face somehow became sterner. "Don't talk about fair, Lou. Not after everything. _Nothing_ is fair in this world."

Lou's face crumpled a little bit. "You're not the only one who's suffering!"

Now that Ty knew what they were talking about, now that he knew _who_ they were talking about, the conversations broke his heart a little bit. Amy had been only fifteen years old. She didn't deserve to die. Her family didn't deserve the heartbreak that came with being without her.

"Not in front of Ty," Jack ground out, and then he pinned his eyes on the very boy he'd just been speaking of. "You think the horse is in bad conditions? Fine. Your responsibility. You keep his stall clean. You keep him clean. You think he's miserable? _You _keep him happy."

He stormed past Lou and Ty then, almost hitting Ty with his shoulder on his way out. Ty sidestepped the angry old man, watching him cross the yard.

"He's not normally –" Lou started, but Ty stopped her.

"Mallory was here earlier. She told me. I'm really sorry, Lou."

Lou suddenly looked more fragile at his words. "We all are. You never imagine hearing that news, you know?"

Ty nodded, even though he didn't know, not really. No one he'd really cared about had ever died before. People had let him down and betrayed him, stabbed him in the back and abandoned him, but they were all out there somewhere, alive. If he wanted to mend bridges, if he wanted to find them, he could.

"Was he serious?" Ty asked her. "About me taking care of Spartan."

"I think so," Lou admitted, an uncomfortable look on her face. "Grandpa was the one who wanted Spartan to come here, because he thought that it would help Mom heal. But it hasn't. She hates him. But no one can bear the thought of putting him down because then it would be like Amy died for nothing. She wanted to save him. That was the last thing that Amy wanted. Now, none of us have the strength to do it for her."

Ty thought of the ghostly girl who had become friends with the unapproachable beast.

Lou sighed heavily. "In the office, Mom has some books on herbal remedies. That was part of her business, healing horses with remedies. You're welcome to read the books if you want, see if there's anything in there that will help you with him."

"I don't know anything about horses," Ty said quickly. "He's going to kill me. Or I'm going to screw up and Jack's going to kill me."

It was clear to Ty that no one on this ranch _liked _Spartan, but that didn't detract from the animal's importance.

"Then don't screw up," Lou replied helpfully. "I, um, I have to go into town now. Try the books or maybe just start with mucking out his stall, I don't know."

Ty watched her rush off and he groaned. Dealing with the stall sounded a lot easier, right now, so he decided to tackle that first.

(-.-)

Ty climbed up on the wooden fence of the round pen, chewing on the modest sandwich that he decided to have for supper. Spartan pinned his ears at Ty and retreated to the far side of the pen. Ty watched the horse paw the ground, and he wondered if horses charged like bulls did. He shoved the last bit of sandwich into his mouth, his jaw working through the thick bread. And that's when her voice nearly startled him into choking on his food.

"Seriously? You're still here?"

Ty twisted around to see Amy standing on the ground, hands on her slender hips, glaring up at him. He took quick stock of her as he tried to swallow the last bit of her food. There was no dark curtain on her skin; no starry night sky. She had no idea that she was dead and had been living in limbo for at least a month. Ty was fascinated. He had never met a ghost like her before. He wondered what she was like – could she touch things like a human could? What had she been doing for the past month for her to not notice her current state? What did she think happened the night of the accident?

"Yes," Ty finally said. "I'm here. I told you: I work here. My name is Ty."

"And I told you I live here," Amy repeated herself from earlier. "So I'd know if you worked here."

"I was just hired."

"Mom and Grandpa didn't tell me. There's no way they wouldn't." She glared at him, and then her gaze shifted and she became distracted. "Who put Spartan outside?"

"Scott and I did this morning," Ty explained. "I'm supposed to groom him now."

"I'll do it," Amy said quickly. "I don't trust you around him."

"He doesn't trust me around him either," Ty replied.

He gestured to the grooming kit on the ground as he took a quick glance around the yard. It probably wouldn't help for Lou or Jack to find him talking to himself so casually. He could see Lou in the kitchen window, but he had no idea where Jack was. Oh well. He returned his gaze to Amy just as she stooped and reached for the grooming kit. Had she been a normal ghost her fingers would have gone right through it. But she was abnormal, and picked up the human object with no issues whatsoever. She hefted the grooming kit and climbed over the fence, nimble even in her dress. Ty was puzzled. She could obviously manipulate the world that she had left behind. But she clearly couldn't manifest in front of people, otherwise someone would have seen her by now, judging by the amount of time she seemed to spend running around the ranch. And where did she go when she wasn't hanging around the ranch?

Spartan stood still as Amy dropped the grooming kit, picking up one of the brushes inside it. He flinched as she rested the brush against his skin. She began speaking to him in a low voice, "Shh, boy. I know it's not easy, but you look like you haven't been brushed in weeks. I promise it'll make you feel better. You won't hurt so much."

"So, I'm Ty," Ty called from his perch, not daring to move lest Spartan kill him.

"You said," Amy replied without turning away from the horse. "I also think you're crazy."

"I'm really not. I live in the loft."

Amy finally looked over her shoulder at him, her long blonde hair giving her an ethereal appearance as the rays from the sunset slid over Heartland's yard. "Brr … Why were you hired? Do you know anything about horses?"

"I'm a convict," Ty answered, blank face. "You haven't even told me your name."

"If you worked here, you would know that," Amy sniffed. "More proof that you should leave and I should call the cops."

He'd liked to see that, actually; her making a phone call. He wondered how it would play out. Instead, he shifted on the fence – the thin boards didn't make for comfortable sitting. "Fine … Amy."

Her eyebrows shot upward, but she didn't say anything about that. "So … a convict."

"Juvenile delinquent," Ty amended. "I'm on probation here. Your mom took me in."

Amy looked uncertain, switching sides on Spartan so that she was peeking at Ty over the horse's broad back. "That does sound like something Mom would do."

"So, just for the moment, can we agree I'm not insane?"

She gave a little shrug, and ran the brush across Spartan's hindquarters. Ty assumed that meant yes, and now he didn't know where to go. He was going to have to tell her she was dead. _He_, someone that she never knew in life and didn't really know in death, was going to have to give her the worst news that she would ever hear.

"How did you get to be so close to Spartan?" Ty asked her. "He seems special to you."

Amy smiled. "Yeah, he is. I found him all beaten up in a barn and I had to convince Mom to go and get him. She didn't want to. It was raining and she thought that something could happen, but it didn't. We got back here and I took care of Spartan. He's still distrustful of people but I wore him down."

So, Amy thought that she had made it home that night. It was a little depressing. Ty wondered how she had managed to come to that conclusion, but the logic of it was clear when he actually thought about it. She must have woken up at Heartland, saw the horse in the barn, and assumed that everything was okay. But there was still so much that didn't make sense to him. Didn't she notice that she didn't see anyone, or that no one saw her? Did she not notice Marion's absence? What about the fact that she wore the same clothes every day? Ty thought that was something that a girl would certainly pick up on.

"I like your dress," he said.

Amy looked down, then frowned. "It's … impractical. I don't wear stuff like this. I don't know why I would have put this on today …"

"Is something different about today?" Ty continued.

Maybe, if he pushed her, she would realize things on her own, and he would never actually have to utter the words _"you're dead_" to her. It was the last thing that he wanted to do. He didn't sign up for this - for any of this death B.S. He lost the genetic lottery, but he had done all that he could when he could. He talked to spirits, made them realize that their time was up and sent them on their way. Telling people what had happened to them, however, was where he drew the line. He couldn't make himself do it. At the very thought of it, a lump the size of the prairies appeared in his throat, and he couldn't breathe.

"I don't know." Amy frowned. She dropped the brush she'd been using into the grooming kit and picked up another one, smoothing away the dirt and hair was left on Spartan. "Things?"

In the fading sunlight, Spartan's starry coat sparkled even brighter, reminding Ty that this was no longer a real girl, but rather a ghost. The horse bore witness to her violent, sad end, and the girl had to know the truth.

Ty switched tactics. The topic of her clothes was getting him nowhere. "You know, your sister is kind of scary."

Amy scoffed. "Lou? Of course she is." Then she paused. "Wait … How do you know Lou?"

"She lives here," Ty said slowly.

Amy shook her head. "No she doesn't. Lou moved to New York. I never get to see her. She hasn't been here in … years, I think."

"Well, she lives here now."

Amy shook her head once more. "That doesn't make any sense. Lou loves New York. There's no reason for her to move back here. And if she was here, I'd see her. Hello, I'm not blind. I'm calling the cops. You're obviously insane."

She threw the brush back in the kit, marching past Spartan. She seemed infuriated as she grabbed the gate but before she could throw it open and possibly disappear, Ty said one last thing.

"Look in the kitchen window."

He knew Lou was still standing there. He watched as Amy's anger at him disappeared into an expression that was pure confusion. She froze completely, becoming a statue. Finally, her lips parted and Ty heard her whisper, _"Lou?"_

Ty jumped down from the fence.

"I don't understand!" She cried, looking at him like he held all her answers. "I'm dreaming. Between you and this weird dress and my sister … I'm asleep."

"We need to talk," Ty said, but her eyes bright eyes widened, and before he could get another word in, Amy had disappeared.

Ty clenched his fists against his sides, but he was also relieved that there was another day where he could go without telling her the news. He looked over his shoulder at Spartan, who had his ears pricked toward where Amy had disappeared. He almost laughed; he didn't know horses could look puzzled.

"What now?" He asked the horse, feeling a sense of comradeship with the animal.

Spartan pinned his ears back. The feeling was not mutual.

**I don't own anything recognizable! Sorry it's a little late!**

**~TLL~**


	6. Chapter 6

"Wake up!"

Ty felt his heart jump into his throat. He bolted upright in bed, his hand flying to his chest. His entire body seemed to thump with adrenaline, and he looked wide-eyed to where the voice had come from. He let out a long exhale when he saw Amy standing at the foot of his bed, her slender arms crossed over her chest, a determined look on her face.

"It's just you," he panted, trying to force his body to calm down. Nothing was happening; nothing was going to happen to him.

Amy looked around disdainfully. "So you weren't lying about living in the loft."

"Or working here," Ty added, but she didn't acknowledge that. She was looking to the side, to the sheets of plastic that hung around the room. Finally, he pressed, "Can I help you with something?"

"Yes," she sniffed. "You need to start talking."

"About what?" Ty questioned.

"Strange things have been happening recently, and I believe it's all your fault, so it's time for you to start talking," she sounded more threatening with every word she said, although Ty was having a hard time being intimidated by the slight blonde.

"Why do you assume it's my fault?" Ty asked, but then he stopped himself. Was he really going to argue with her, especially as he actually did know the truth when she was inexplicably blind?

"Are you trying to tell me you don't know anything?" Her voice had calmed, but Ty's heart skipped a beat. She was strangely perceptive, but she had still managed to avoid the harsh truth.

"I do know what's going on," Ty admitted. "But it's hard to say, so I don't want to."

"Selfish much?"

"_You're_ the one that needs me," Ty snapped before he could stop himself, before he could think about the words. He shouldn't be so rude to her or so defensive. She _did_ need him. Amy needed him to help her realize the truth, and cross to wherever spirits were supposed to go.

"So tell me what I need to know!" Amy cried. Her light eyes flashed, and then her façade of strength crumbled. She looked even younger than she was when she whispered, "Will you help me? I _know_ something is wrong and I don't know what to do about it, but somehow you seem to. I need you to help me."

So she wasn't completely oblivious. Ty didn't know how spirits typically found out they were dead. He had never bothered to ask and none of the ones that he encountered had ever seemed to want to share.

"Okay," Ty said slowly. "I'll tell you everything that you need to know, but you're not going to like it."

Amy paused at this, and then she sighed. "But I have to know, don't I?" She glanced at him, and he realized that she wanted affirmation that she couldn't hide, and he gave it to her with a nod. "So, tell me."

Ty climbed out of bed, feeling like this shouldn't be a conversation he had while lying down. He went to stand in front of her, getting really close to her for the first time. He realized how little she seemed, how young. Ty wasn't old by any means, he was nearing the end of his teenage years, but somehow there was a vulnerability to Amy that made him even more reluctant to say anything to her.

"What's the date today?" He asked her.

"What?" Amy blinked, starting. "I don't know."

"Just answer the question, okay?"

Amy shrugged.

"Guess," Ty encouraged.

"I don't know," she repeated. "It's … I mean, Spartan's been here for a few weeks at least, so …" she took a guess, and Ty felt his heart sink.

"It's actually a few weeks after that," he said quietly, and told her the real date. She told him that he was full of it.

"I don't have to stand her for you to screw with me! I came to you for help!" She shouted, storming toward the door.

"Why me?" Ty called after her, stopping her in her tracks. "Why not go to Jack or Marion? How did you not know Lou was living here? What was the last conversation you had with your mother?"

Her sense of time was warped, Ty realized. She was aware that Spartan had been at Heartland for a while, even if she wasn't sure how long, but it had never occurred to her that she hadn't spoken with her family members for an extended period of time; that no one had seemed to notice her presence.

"What do you do every day, Amy?" Ty demanded.

He knew that she wasn't present at the ranch all the time, because he'd see her far more often if she was. When she was here, he wondered what she did. If she was in the barn all the time, she'd see Jack and wonder why he didn't see her. If she was in the house, she'd wonder why no one reacted to her. She'd know that her mother barely left her room from the depression. But Amy seemed ignorant to the comings and goings of her family; to the world at large. Sometimes, Ty wondered if she just lived in a fog, and if that was the case, he was impressed that she had even picked up on time passing and that something was wrong. He was sure the cause of this was Spartan. If Amy had been around horses her whole life, especially damaged ones, she would know that it took time to build trust with an animal and create a bond. Spartan's attitude changes toward her must have been one of the things that tipped her off. The way the animal acted was different, so obviously things had been happening, but on the other hand things seemed exactly the same … At least, Ty assumed that was what her point of view was.

"I didn't go to Grandpa or Mom because … because … you seemed to know things. And Lou is never here, so why would I think that …" She still had her back to him, but Ty could see her shoulders slump inward as she realized her answers were inadequate.

"Amy, turn around and let's talk." Ty tried not to say it as an order, but it came out that way.

Still, Amy listened. She spun away from the steps that would take her down into the heart of the barn and crossed the room back to him. She was standing extraordinarily close – close enough that it unnerved Ty, and he had to take a little shuffle all away.

"Honest question," Ty said, "What do you do all day?"

"I see Spartan and then … I usually spend a lot of time with Mom because she works with horses and that's what I like to do."

"Usually?" Ty picked up on the word.

"Things are confusing," Amy whispered.

"What's the last clear thing you remember doing with Marion?"

Amy turned her head to the side, looking at the door. "I was on a ride with Jen. I was riding Hutch. Mom told me not to stay out too late, because of the weather. It was supposed to get bad. We were riding on someone's property … I think his name was Mallen. I heard a horse crying and I had to check on him. It was Spartan. He was locked inside a barn, covered in dirt and starving. I had to save him. Jen and I rode away from the property. She said goodbye and I went back to Mom. She didn't want to go out driving in the rain, but I asked her too because it was important for me to get Spartan. We went to Mallen's, and we got him into the trailer …" She said all of this in a deadpan voice, as if she had no emotional attachment to the scene was describing.

"Then what happened?" Ty pushed when she trailed off, her eyes glazing over with memories.

"It was raining really hard. Mom was driving really slowly. Spartan was kicking. He didn't like the trailer. There was a … a …"

"A what?"

"A tree? I think it was a tree. It was in the middle of the road. Mom had to swerve to avoid it, but we ended up going down over a bank," Amy's voice was rising with emotion. Her eyes squeezed shut, but Ty could still see panic all over her face as she confronted that night for the first time since it had actually happened. "We were going so fast and Mom was losing control of the truck. Spartan was screaming and I can't remember if I was too. I was so scared and then … then I shouted for her and then … everything went dark and there was so much pain … so much pain."

Her eyes flew open, her porcelain cheeks wet with tears. She reached for him in a frenzy, gripping onto his bare forearm so that she would be grounded to something. Ty glanced down at her hand, freaked out because she was dead and she wasn't going through him and because of how frozen she was. He would have rather stood butt naked, for hours on end, in an Albertan snowbank than feel the bone-crushing, strength-sapping cold that resided in Amy's dead fingers. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to shake her off.

"After the pain?" Ty murmured as she stood there, a perfect doll, the only thing giving her movement was the terrified movement of her eyes.

"I was here?" Amy squeaked, turning it into a question. Ty watched her change from the confrontational answer seeker who had woken him up, to someone who was finally realizing the truth. She was deflating.

"No hospital? What happened to your mom?"

"Mom … was fine. She had to be fine, because I was fine, right?" Amy said all of it in a rush. She brought her other hand up so that she was gripping both of Ty's forearms, and then chill doubled. It was painful, but he couldn't pull away. The physical agony of her touch was nothing compared to the emotional anguish on her face as she choked out, "I wasn't fine, was I?"

Ty shook his head, and she let go of him, collapsing to the floor. Her knees made a dull thud as she collided with the wood, burying her face in her hands so that the only thing she could see was her long, curled blonde hair. Ty could only watch her for a moment as heat rushed back through his body. He never thought that he would feel overheated in this loft, but right now, he did. It was only her gasping sobs that brought him back to the broken hearted girl on the floor. He knelt in front of her forlorn figure.

"Amy?"

"I _died_!" She screamed, with so much force torment that Ty felt tears come to his own eyes.

"Amy, I'm so sorry."

Her sobs seemed to double as she curled further in on herself. Ty didn't know what he could do or say. There was no way to make this better. He couldn't heal her. Time couldn't fix her. There was nothing left for Amy here anymore. Tragically, she had lost her life before she could reach the height of it and, although Ty had encountered child spirits before, somehow the thought of the life Amy could have had touched him deeper than anything else had before. He was just about to reach out to her – cold be damned, touch was comforting and she needed that – when he saw it. He saw a thin black film begin to slide over her golden hair, stars twinkling across her body as the truth sunk into Amy. She was dead. She finally knew that she was dead.

A scream erupted from her lips and she bolted backward, flying onto her bottom. She stared in horror at her hands, at her legs that stretched out in front of her.

"What's happening to me?" She cried out.

"It's something that happens when you know you died." Ty tried to explain it gently, but there was nothing gentle about explaining the particulars of death. "It's perfectly normal!"

"None of this is normal!" Amy shouted.

"I know," Ty murmured, and he tried to reach for her, but she just as he was nearing her hand, she disappeared from in front of him, like the ghost she was.

**So, next week I'm moving home for the summer! I should be able to update on Tuesdays as always. The difference being that there's a four hour time difference between where I am now and home. But, this is good news because now you'll be getting updates roughly four hours than you usually do! Woo!**

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	7. Chapter 7

Ty's head jerked up as a shadow fell across the ground in front of him. For a hopeful moment, he thought that it was Amy. He hadn't seen her for almost a week. He wished that she would come back, if only so he could explain more to her and help her understand, but she hadn't. She still hadn't, he realized sadly as he met Lou's eyes. She tucked her gloved hands into her thick coat and tried to smile at him.

"How are you today?"

"I'm taking horse crap from the barn to the manure pile. I'm having a stellar day. How are you today, Lou?"

"Fine. Um, want to get off the property for a while?"

"Yeah!" Ty exclaimed. "Absolutely."

"Great! Grandpa is feeling a little under the weather today, and since Carl's supposed to call soon, neither of us are able to go pick up the feed order at Maggie's." She pulled a list out of her pocket. "Everything has already been paid for. Just double check that everything is there and load it into your truck and head back."

"Simple enough that even I can figure it out," Ty snorted.

"I would have sent the monkey, but she's currently writing Shakespeare," Lou joked in return, surprising Ty with her flare of wit.

"I'll head out now," Ty said.

"Don't get lost," Lou warned him. She sounded serious, but Ty decided to treat it as a joke; Hudson really only had one street.

He darted to his room just long enough to grab his truck keys. Soon, he was driving down Heartland's long driveway. The new-to-him but ancient-to-everyone-else truck was freezing and any other time, Ty might have complained about the broken heater. But, he'd arrived at Heartland weeks ago. This was the first time he'd been off the property. It just felt good to be driving.

He was almost off the property when, "Where are we going?"

Ty slammed on the brakes, the truck squealing at him and sliding a little on the icy driveway, as it frantically halted. His chest heaving and his heart hammering from the shock, Ty turned his head to the passenger seat. Amy was staring at him, rather innocently considering the surprise she had given him. Her eyes, set against the semi-transparent black veil of death that now covered her skin, glinted brighter than he had ever seen them before.

"How did you get in here?" Ty demanded. "How long have you been in here?"

Amy shrugged. "A few seconds … I thought you were the answers guy. I just felt confused, so I thought of you and then I saw here."

"Confused about?"

"How can I be … dead," her voice dropped to a whisper on her last word, "and not know it all?"

"I have no idea," Ty admitted, feeling as if he'd let her down. "You were probably just in extreme denial."

Amy bit her lip and sighed deeply. She fidgeted with her hands, and then side-eyed Ty. She looked surprised to find that he was looking back at her. "Drive. I need to think."

"You're coming?"

Amy shrugged, readjusting her little black sweater over her shoulders. "What else am I going to do?"

Ty switched his foot over to the gas. "We're going to Maggie's," he informed her.

"_Maggie's_?" Amy gasped.

"Yeah. Lou wanted me to get the feed order."

"Ty, what day is it?"

"It's Saturday."

Amy hung her head. Ty glanced at her, but he couldn't tell if she was happy or sad that it was Saturday; her hair was completely obscuring her face. After a few more minutes of driving, Amy spoke.

"Soraya's probably working," she whispered.

"Who's Soraya?"

"My best friend. I haven't seen her in two weeks!" Her voice held all the excitement that a normal girl would have after not seeing her friends for weeks. Then, her head popped up. "I mean, two weeks before I … before it happened."

"Sorry," Ty murmured, because there was nothing else for him to say.

"No one will know I'm here, will they?"

"No," Ty confirmed. "I'll just look like a crazy guy talking to himself."

Instead of laughing, Amy asked, "How do you know you're not?"

Ty didn't answer. He pulled up in front of Maggie's and jumped out of the truck. He grabbed his wallet, just in case, and then he watched as Amy tried to grab onto the door handle. Her fingers just went through it. She let out a desperate cry. Ty closed the truck door and left her alone. He didn't know how to comfort her right now; he didn't know if she would want to be comforted.

He entered Maggie's, blinking as he realized it was both a store and a diner. It was a little strange to look to one side and see saddles, then look to the other side and see fries. Behind the counter was a young girl, about Amy's age. She had light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and brown curls that were tied tightly against her neck. He approached the counter, sticking his hand in his jacket pocket and curling his fingers around Lou's instructions.

The girl glanced up, putting on a people smile for him. "Hi, welcome to Maggie's! What can I do for you?"

"I'm here to pick up an order," Ty said. He glanced at her nametag. _Soraya; _Amy's best friend.

"Sure. For who?"

Before he could say anything, Amy was at his side, distracting him. He could see the top of her blonde head bobbing in his peripheral vision.

"Just say Heartland," Amy instructed absently. She waded into the counter, getting close to the oblivious Soraya, who was still waiting for an answer from Ty. "Hi Soraya. I missed you."

"Heartland."

Soraya glanced at him, through Amy, looking confused. "Really?"

"I'm the new stable hand. I just started. I'm Ty Borden."

"Oh yeah. Lou called about you … Sorry, I've just been lost in thought."

"No worries." Ty tried to smile at her, but she just looked sad. It wasn't hard for Ty to guess what she was thinking about.

"How is everyone?" Soraya asked, after gesturing to one of the other employees to fetch Heartland's order. "I haven't been to Heartland in a while."

"I'd like to tell you that they're all doing great, but the truth is as well as you could expect."

Soraya glanced down at the counter, and Amy took the opportunity to wave her fingers under Soraya's eyes.

"Can you hear me?" Amy shouted, loud enough to make Ty wince. "You have to notice _something_." Amy spun around, still standing in the counter, turning her liquid eyes to Ty. "If I touch her, will she feel anything?"

Ty shook his head as subtly as he could. Most people on earth would never notice Amy, not even if she walked through them. She was dead and, now that she knew it, her ability to manipulate the world of the living was gone completely. She glared at him and dropped her hand onto Soraya's; it sunk through the other girl's skin. Soraya didn't flinch.

"So you know?" Soraya murmured. "About Amy?"

"Mallory isn't exactly a quiet girl," Ty remarked.

Soraya looked up at that and laughed softly. "An understatement. I used to be at Heartland all the time. It was like a second home for me. But ever since the accident, I haven't been able to make myself go."

"You should," Ty encouraged her. "I think they'd like to see you. It might make Lou feel better. I doubt anything would make Jack feel better."

"I see them when they stop in sometimes. They both like to stop and talk." Soraya bit her lip and then leaned toward Ty. "Um, I have a question."

"Fire away," Ty said. He glanced at Amy, who was swatting at Soraya – slaps that would injure her best friend if she could actually do anything – and growing increasingly angry at the fact that she couldn't touch her.

"I haven't seen Marion since, well, two weeks before the accident. I was on vacation. I just want to know that she's okay."

Amy stopped cold at the mention of Marion's name. "When was the last time _I _saw Mom?" She sounded horrified with herself.

"I haven't seen her since I arrived. I really can't tell you anything," Ty said apologetically. "I know she's not taking any clients. I don't think she leaves her room all that much."

Soraya seemed to curl in on herself. "I was afraid of that."

"_Mom_," Amy whimpered. She then collapsed, completely disappearing within the confines of the counter, although Ty could still hear her sniffling.

"Sorry."

"It's hard," Soraya revealed. "I saw her nearly every day. I was going to see her in just a few days. And I came home and immediately went to her f-f-f-_funeral_."

Tears began streaming down Soraya's face. Ty grabbed napkins from a nearby dispenser and offered them to her. She dabbed at her face, but it did no good.

Amy popped up from the counter. "Soraya, don't cry," she begged, and she went to put her hands on her friend's shoulders, but her arms fell through her body.

"I'm sorry," Ty told her, feeling as if this conversation had been full of those words. He wondered if he should tell her that it will be okay, but Soraya was already talking.

"Me too," she managed. "I shouldn't be saying any of this. I'm working and you didn't even know her."

Ty looked away from her face to watch Amy – who was still desperately trying to hug her best friend. "I feel like I did … You know, from how often people tell me about her."

It was a lie, and a blatant one. Aside from Mallory, people at Heartland avoided talking about Amy. She was a wound still too raw to touch.

"She was one of a kind," Soraya whispered, lost in a memory.

Amy suddenly spun away from Soraya, standing directly in front of Ty. She begged, "Can't you tell her? Tell her I'm okay and that I'm standing right in front of her. I can't watch her cry."

Ty shook his head. He couldn't do that.

"I hate you," Amy told him coldly, and then she sunk back into the counter and out of view.

Ty blinked, focusing on the conversation he was supposed to be having with the living. To Soraya, he said, "She sounds like it."

Soraya nodded, and then attempted to smile at him. "Your order is ready to go. I don't want to keep you."

"Thanks," Ty said. "You should stop by Heartland. I'm sure it would be a help for them to see Amy's friends … Sorry, that was probably out of line."

No, it was _definitely_ over the line. He'd only known Jack and Lou for a few weeks – he'd never so much as seen Marion. He'd only met Soraya a few minutes previously. Amy, in theory, he'd never met at all. He wasn't in a position to offer advice about their lives and how they should proceed in Amy's absence; particularly since she was so present for him.

Soraya, though, didn't seem offended. "Thanks, I think I will. It's nice to hear that someone else thinks visiting is a good idea."

"See you around, Soraya."

"Bye, Ty."

Ty turned and accidentally on-purpose dropped his keys. Amy was still sitting in the counter – he could see the toe of her shoe sticking out next to one of the stools.

"Are you coming in the truck or are you teleporting home?" He asked her, keeping his voice low.

The shoe disappeared.

Fine. If she wanted to be stubborn, she could be stubborn. He wasn't going to make himself look like a loon by talking to the counter in some vain attempt to get her in his truck. He picked up his keys and headed out the door with the employee that had fetched Heartland's order. It took only a few minutes for Ty and the employee to get the order into the bed of Ty's truck. As Ty jumped down from the tailgate, thanking the man as he landed, Amy stalked out of Maggie's front door. She climbed through the truck door and into the passenger seat.

Ty got into the driver's seat. He waited until they were out of the parking lot before speaking. "Are you okay?"

Amy crossed her arms over her chest, trying not to look as upset as she was. Instead of answering his question, she asked one of her own. "Why don't I fall out of your truck?"

"Huh?"

"I can stick my arm straight through the truck door. I walked into the counter at Maggie's. I can stand inside of Soraya and she has no idea that I'm there. But I can sit in your truck like I'm normal."

"I don't know. I don't pretend to understand everything. The spirit world and the human world can interact in strange ways."

"Helpful." Amy set her jaw. "I hate this. It's like I'm a ghost."

"You are." Ty tried to say the words gently, but he couldn't detract from the reality of what he said.

"Damn," Amy yipped, and then she vanished.

Ty glared at her suddenly empty seat and then he slammed the heel of his hand against the steering wheel, feeling utterly inadequate. Why did he have to be the one to meet Amy? He had spent his life trying to avoid the dead and his ability to see and speak to them. He knew nothing of the rules of death; he had very limited experience with it. What limited experience he had with spirits was easy. He had encountered people who already knew they were dead and who were ready to move on – they just needed a little bit of prompting and guidance from him, something that he had some grudgingly given them. Amy, though, had just discovered her death – the black veil on her skin was still scary and new to her. She wasn't even close to thinking about moving on, let alone actually wanting to do it. But Ty had no idea how to get her ready for either of those transitions. He wasn't compassionate enough or knowledgeable enough to be the kind of guide that she undoubtedly needed him to be.

The kind of guide that he undoubtedly wanted to be for her.


	8. Chapter 8

The yard was empty when Ty drove in, which wasn't surprising. Lou and Marion spent most of the time in their house. Jack spent a lot of time riding – from Ty's understanding there were cows somewhere, in a field that he'd never seen and he doubted he ever would. He parked his truck close to the barn so that he would have a shorter distance to carry the order. But instead of immediately starting to unload, Ty headed into the barn, hoping that, for some reason, Amy would be inside waiting for him.

She wasn't. Instead, he nearly ran into Lou. She was standing just inside the barn door, her dark hair waving down her back. She already had her hands on her hips when she spun around to face Ty. "Are you back already? I thought you might explore Hudson."

Ty didn't bother to point out that there wasn't a lot to explore in Hudson. He was distracted by the man standing behind Lou. Instinctively, he knew that the man wasn't Lou's often talked about boyfriend, Carl. This man was too old – not quite as old as Jack, but definitely older than Lou … Maybe twice her age, a little younger. He had light brown hair and a large nose. He was standing with Pegasus, his hand on the grey gelding's neck. He was staring at Ty, something undefinable in his eyes.

Lou beckoned to the man. "Come on. I'll take you home."

Ty stepped out of their way, never taking his eyes off the man. There was something strange about him; something Ty didn't know if he liked. He watched Lou and the man get into Jack's truck. As they drove off the property, he decided that he couldn't worry about it; couldn't nose his way into the family's business. He may live on the property, but that didn't mean he was one of them. They had personal problems that he would never know about on top of the fact that they were grieving over Amy – someone he knew too much about.

Ty shook his head to himself and went to bring the order in, he might as well do something useful. He made quick work of it and wondered what he should do next. Maybe he should go check on Spartan now. He looked at the horse's empty stall, and noticed that there was a note tacked to the front of it. Curious, Ty grabbed it, reading the short note.

_Ty,_

_ Don't forget the horse is __**your**__ responsibility now. It's getting cold tonight. Bring him in._

_ Jack._

Ty crumpled the note into his pocket, and then turned on his heel to go visit Spartan. He hoped that Amy was out with the horse, if only so that he wouldn't have to deal with the monster by himself. He was in luck – he could see the thin human form that could only belong to Amy standing inside of Spartan's pen. Spartan was standing on the opposite side of Amy, but he looked calm. Even when Ty approached and climbed up on the fence, Spartan barely paid him any mind.

"Hey, Amy," he said, after it became clear that she wasn't going to talk to him first.

She kept her back to him, though her shoulders slumped forward. "Hi."

"Are you –"

"Do not even _think_ about finishing that question," Amy ordered him. "I'm dead. Nothing is okay."

"Sorry," Ty apologized immediately. "Do you want to talk?"

"About what?"

"Um, what about Spartan? Let's talk about him."

Amy turned around to face him. "What about him?"

"If you hadn't noticed, he hates everyone. How did you get to become friends?"

Amy looked toward the horse. "I remember walking into the barn and seeing him, right after it happened. I didn't know his name or anything else, I just knew that this was the horse from the accident. He was so angry, pacing his stall and kicking out at it. I was scared of him but I was so curious. I walked toward him and he just stopped when he saw me. I thought that he'd frozen … and then he started kicking at the stall again. I spent almost all of my time here in the barn after the accident … I realize that now. Whenever I was in the barn, I would just stay by his stall, talking and singing. I think I just wore him down because eventually he got used to me, I guess. He let me touch him and talk to him. It happened extraordinarily quickly, though. I've watched Mom work with horses for years and I've never seen trust like that happen so quickly." She moved toward Spartan as she talked, and then she stopped to study him. "His coat looks like my skin. Why is that? He's not dead."

"It's because he was there when you died. Marion probably looks the same way."

Amy looked at Ty suddenly, her face white and her eyes sad. "I can't walk into the house."

"What?"

"I tried because when we were with Soraya, I realized that I haven't actually seen anyone but you for a really long time. How could I not try to see my family? But then I walked up to the porch and I put my foot on it and then I felt myself pulled away. When I came back here, it was later in the day and I was with Spartan."

Ty frowned, puzzled by this, as he was by everything that had to do with Amy. "I'll make you a deal."

"What?"

"If you help me become friends with Spartan then I'll take you into the house for dinner tonight."

"You think you can do that?"

The hopeful excitement in Amy's voice made Ty smile. "I think that I can … Assuming that you help me with the horse."

She studied him. 'Why do you need to get along with Spartan?"

"Jack put him in my care. I need to know how to take care of him."

"All right," Amy agreed. "Come here."

"He'll kill me."

"Don't be a scaredy cat," Amy teased. She went to Spartan's side, brushing her night-sky hand against his night-sky coat. "See, he's perfectly fine."

"For you, maybe." Ty jumped down into the pen. The minute he touched the ground, Spartan's ears went back. "See?"

"How much experience do you have with horses?" Amy asked, signalling for Ty to stand where he was while she tried to get Spartan to look a little happier.

"Including the weeks I've been here?" Ty asked. "The weeks that I've been here."

"Great," Amy rolled her eyes. "Maybe we should start with the basics."

"I just need to get along with _this_ particular horse," Ty argued.

"You're working in a horse _barn_!" Amy laughed at him. "You should know how to ride and deal with horses."

"I learnt how to groom," Ty argued in his defense. "And I've figured out what to do with a saddle and bridle."

"That's a start," Amy acknowledge. "What horse did you learn all of this with?"

"Pegasus," Ty said. "Lou said that he would be the best horse for me to learn that stuff with because he's so gentle."

"True," Amy said. "Okay, come here."

Ty took some steps forward. Spartan tossed his head up and tried to back away from Amy. She slid her hand into his mane and rested a hand on his chin, but the closer Ty got, the more the horse tried to resist Amy. When Ty was in a close enough distance to conceivably touch Spartan, he shot forward, racing away from Ty and Amy and dashing in circles around the pen. Amy stepped into the center of the pen and Ty stuck close to her. He didn't want to give Spartan the opportunity to hurt him. He watched as Spartan began to slow down, and he began to relax as the horse seemed to calm down. But, as Spartan's wild canter began to even out into a trot, Amy flung her arms out, urging him to run again. Spartan started but picked up his pace again.

"What are you doing?" Ty asked through his teeth. "He's going insane!"

"No, he's not. I know what I'm doing." Amy assured him. "It's called join-up. It's a technique that Mom taught me. Usually, only one person stands in the middle of the ring, but you're stuck with me now. Just stay out of our way."

"Done and done," Ty swore.

Spartan slowed, but Amy forced him to pick up the pace again. She shed off the little black cardigan that she wore, and Ty noticed that the black dress she had on had long sleeves. She took the sleeves of the black cardigan and held onto it.

"It'll be our lunge whip," she said to Ty, although those words didn't mean anything to him.

She used it to control Spartan. With a wave of the cardigan, she commanded him to switch directions. It almost looked like the black gelding would resist but he switched, keeping up the harsh pace that Amy had decided upon. She watched him, her light eyes like steel. Spartan's gait began to calm, but this time, his head also dropped, his mouth looking like he was chewing.

"Turn your back on him," Amy commanded, turning to look away from the horse.

"Are you –"

"Crazy? No, I know what I'm doing. Turn around."

Ty did as she asked, but not without some trepidation. He listened as Spartan's hoof beats began to slow down and then they stopped altogether. There was a long pause, and Ty could do nothing but watch Amy's face, wondering what was supposed to be happening. Amy's face was calm, though, and confident. It was her look that made Ty resist the urge to turn around and see what Spartan was doing. There was one hoof beat, then another. Ty was sure that the horse was slowly approaching, and he began to worry again. Amy was the picture of certainty, and then Ty saw Spartan's dark muzzle appear over Amy's shoulder. He rested his head heavily against her. Amy didn't turn around to face Spartan, instead she walked away from him. Her steps were slow and assured. Ty watched, out of the corner of his eyes, as Spartan's ears pricked toward her. The horse hesitated only a moment before he followed Amy. She led him around and around the pen in different patterns. Finally, she returned to their original position and turned to face Spartan.

"Good boy," she crooned.

"So what was that?" Ty asked.

"Join up. It's a demonstration of trust. It helps build the bond between horse and rider." Amy smiled at Ty, and then, still holding Spartan, she looked to Ty. "He'll let you touch him now."

Ty stared at the horse's neck and then he swallowed back his fear. If Amy thought that he was safe, then he just might be. He rested his hand against the horse's starry-night skin. The animal wasn't entirely chilled – he was still alive and therefore warm – but he was still cold enough to make Ty shiver once. He listened as Spartan's nostrils flared, and Ty felt the horse shudder with breath as he was touched. He expected Spartan to shake him off, but the horse seemed resigned to Ty's hand.

"See, he's not _scary,_" Amy crooned. "He's just _scared_."

Ty was becoming more inclined to believe that.

"He still has a long way to go, but we'll get there, won't we?" Ty watched Amy kiss the horse on the nose, and he felt a little sad, because if she had lived, they probably would have been the exact same way – with the exception that she would be _alive_.

"Ty," Amy asked, her voice thin, "Can we go in the house now? I think it's suppertime."

"It is," Ty said. "We just have to put Spartan in his still and then we can go in, okay?"

Amy nodded eagerly. "Get the gate! Come on, Spartan!"

**I don't own anything recognizable. Sorry for the weird update time - I've been sick and today was my first day back at work :(**

**~TLL~**


	9. Chapter 9

"I'm scared to go any further," Amy whined and planted her feet. "What if I disappear and can't go in?"

Ty was crouched down in front of the porch so that if anyone looked out the window, they wouldn't seem him talking to thin air. He had spent most of his life hiding his abilities to avoid looking like a creep; just because Amy was one of the more interesting dead people he'd ever met didn't mean that he was going to sacrifice his secret for her. Besides, he needed the people living at Heartland to continue liking him. If all went here, he could live out his probation and then continue on with his life rather than going back to where he had been before. But, before he could get on with the rest of his life, there was still Amy.

"I don't think there's anything specifically keeping you out," Ty told her.

Amy fixed him with a look. "You don't sound convinced. What are you actually thinking?"

"I do have a theory," Ty admitted. "Come here."

She walked away from the porch steps to stand in front of him. Staying in his crouched position, Ty offered her his arm. She stared at the limb skeptically.

"That's _not_ a theory. And I can't touch you."

"I'll explain later," Ty promised, "And I think you can."

"I couldn't touch Soraya," Amy protested.

"Do I look like Soraya?" Ty asked her. When she looked frustrated, he backpedalled, "Trust me, okay? I'll explain it all later if this works."

Coming to a decision, Amy slowly reached forward. She and Ty both stared at her inky looking fingers, waiting for her hand to pass through his forearm. Instead, he was faced with the icy pain of a dead person's touch. He trembled violently, waiting for the frozen feeling to pass. Amy lifted her hand from him and then touched him again, her eyes going wide.

"I can touch _you_," she exclaimed.

"You also touched Spartan," Ty pointed out.

"I did," Amy realized. "I don't get it."

"Tell me this," Ty asked her, "Were you ever in my truck? I mean, before today."

For a moment, Amy looked like she was going to lie, then she clucked her tongue and said, "Maybe."

"Did you go through the passenger side door?"

She shook her head.

"But did you sit in the passenger seat?"

She nodded.

"I think that you can touch things that you were able to touch before you died. That's why you could sit in the passenger seat but go through the truck door."

"I guess it makes sense." Amy momentarily took her hand off of Ty and she looked down at her palms. "But won't that mean that I'll just fall through the floor of the house?"

"Part two of the theory," Ty said, "I think that, if you keep holding onto me then you'll be okay. Because I'll be grounding you to the human world."

"Like possession?" She looked grossed out by the idea.

"No, because you're not taking over."

"Will I be able to go into the house without you after? Because I've already touched it as part of the human world, because touching you makes me part of the human world again, right?"

Ty shrugged. "Maybe … That'll be the experimental part."

"One more question."

"Of course."

"Why couldn't I go in before?"

"It's only a theory."

"Do you know anything for sure?" Amy exclaimed.

"Do you?" Ty retorted.

"Sorry," she said automatically, but she didn't sound all that apologetic. "What's this theory?"

"Your mom has been really upset since your accident. I think that her depression combined with spirit energy, that black sparkly stuff you have all over you, is keeping you out."

"Why would it? If Mom wants to see me, shouldn't that pull me in?"

"You're the source of her pain," Ty pointed out, trying to be gentle, as he always was around her.

"Right." Amy squared her shoulders. "Come on. I'm ready."

Ty popped up to his feet. "I don't know what will happen if you let go of me."

"I don't know if I will," Amy said honestly. She wrapped her hand securely around his elbow.

"Remember, I can't talk to you anymore," Ty said as they approached the steps.

"You could," Amy said. She put her foot down on the first stair and her grip became tight. But she didn't vanish; she continued with him to the front door. Ty could practically feel the relief radiating off her. "You just don't want to seem crazy."

Ty shrugged and open the front door. It was a little awkward, getting Amy through. It became apparent, very quickly, that while holding Ty, she was once again able to impact the human world and it was able to impact her. When he was opening the screen door, it awkwardly cracked against her shoulder. Amy could only grin at the impact; at the fact that it didn't go through her. Ty got her through the front door. Taking off his shoes wasn't a problem, but when it came to his coat, he and Amy stared at each other for a moment. He unzipped the front of his jacket and she planted her other hand on his chest so she could let go of his elbow.

"Not close to my heart," Ty had to his under his breath. She was cold enough to stop it … At least, that's what it felt like.

Amy looked at him oddly, but dropped her hand further down his ribs, closer to his belly button. Once he had his coat off, she put her hand back on his arm, tugging him into the kitchen. Ty had to clench his bicep and hold it tightly to his side; he couldn't let anyone watch him be tugged into the house by an unknown force. He walked side by side with Amy into the kitchen. Lou was stirring something in a pot on the stove.

"Oh, Ty! Dinner won't be ready for a few more minutes. I hope that's all right."

"Fine," Ty answered. He took a seat at the kitchen table, watching Amy strain toward her sister. "Don't touch anything," he hissed at her out of the corner of his mouth.

"But, my sister," Amy whimpered. "I haven't seen her for so long."

Ty jerked her back toward him, and then, keeping a careful eye on Lou, reached over to her hand on him. He threatened to let go of her, and she quieted down immediately.

"Okay!" She shrieked. "Your rules. I'll follow."

"How was your day, Lou?" Ty asked.

"I just went into town," Lou replied vaguely. Ty thought she looked a little suspicious, but it really wasn't his place to be suspicious. "I was catching up with old friends. I haven't been able to see any since I got back."

"It must be nice to see them."

"It makes Hudson feel a little more like home," Lou said. "I left because I hated it. I still love New York so much more but I can't leave Hudson and Heartland again, not now."

"She shouldn't have to give up her dreams in New York," Amy murmured. She tightened her grip on Ty. "Did you know I hated her? I hated her for so long because she went to New York and she left me behind and I … I was so mad. I want … I wish that there was some way that she could know I never really hated her. I just missed her."

Ty maneuvered his hand up so that he was holding Amy's. He tucked their clenched hands under the table because anyone who saw his invisible grip would start questioning if there was something wrong with him.

"It must be difficult," Ty managed to say. "Did you see anyone interesting?"

"Oh … Marnie."

"Marnie was her best friend here. Has she seen Scott?" Amy asked.

_The vet?_

"They were together in high school," Amy giggled. "I think he's always still thought about her, you know? Plus, he's a lot nicer than Carl sounds."

And now she was playing matchmaker. Ty would have laughed, if he were able. She was strangely surprising.

"Sounds fun."

"I need you to tell me if I'm crazy," Lou said suddenly as she lifted the pot off the stove.

"Me? Why?"

"Because Grandpa's cranky, Mom is … who even knows … And my friends don't know what life is like here because they don't live here. You do. You're the only person I can turn to."

Ty watched her curiously as she strained the pasta she was making. "It's not like I live in the house."

"Play along, _please_," Lou stressed.

"Playing along," Ty agreed.

"My boyfriend, Carl, is coming to visit soon."

"That's nice," Ty said.

"No _way_," Amy disagreed.

"Right," Lou said, "And he's going to be staying here. Which isn't the big deal. See, my friends in Hudson want to meet him and he wants to meet them and I was thinking … why not have a little get together here for him?"

"That sounds reasonable," Ty said, a little unsure if that was the reaction he was supposed to have. "I mean, you live here. It's your house."

"Having Carl here is not reasonable. He makes Lou snobby whenever she's around him, which means he's worse," Amy whined.

"It's _Grandpa_'s house."

"That's true," Amy agreed quickly. "I don't think Grandpa likes him either. I mean, we've never met him in person, but we know what he's like."

"But you live here. You're his granddaughter. If Carl means something to you, then that must mean that he means something to Jack."

"If Grandpa's thought process made sense, I'd agree with you." Lou sighed. "Just, tell me this: do you think the universe will end if I have people over here?"

"YES!" Amy shouted.

Ty winced, but said, "No? I don't know if I can make a call on that, but … No?"

"That's all I needed." Lou brightened. "Everything's ready. Do you mind taking these dishes into the table? Grandpa should be around here somewhere. I'm going to go talk to Mom, see if she wants to eat with us tonight."

After managing a smile that would never be called authentic, Lou swept out of the kitchen, and Ty went to pick up the large pasta dish from where she'd left it on the counter, Amy tagging beside him all the while. When they were stationary, it was almost possible to ignore how cold she was but whenever either of them moved, fresh icicles would bolt through Ty's vein. His arm was going numb.

"Please start rotating where you hold me," Ty requested. "You're freezing."

"I wish I could let go altogether," Amy whined. "I wish –"

She cut herself off as they rounded the corner to the large dining room table. Jack was already standing by it, pouring water into glasses.

"_Grandpa_," she breathed, and Ty was able to hear tears in her voice. He had heard her cry far too much in the time he'd been around her. It was to be expected, considering why they were meeting like this, but it didn't make him feel any better. He wished he had a chance to know her when she was alive and wasn't plagued by the pain she was now.

"Hello, Jack," Ty greeted him.

"Ty." Jack nodded at him. "I see you got the horse into the barn."

"It wasn't easy," Ty said.

"Piece of cake," Amy bragged.

"Nothing about that horse is easy," Jack grumbled.

"Why do you sound like you hate him?" Amy demanded of her grandfather, getting as close to him as she could without letting go of her human leash. "He's just a horse, Grandpa."

"Is Lou with Marion?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Ty confirmed as Amy turned to look at him.

"Does Grandpa hate Spartan?"

Ty nodded.

"Does everyone? Is that why you need me to take care of him? Is that why he was so dirty and gross?" Without waiting for his confirmation, Amy exploded. "He needs love! He needs to be shown that people love him. They can't do this to him. He deserved to be saved. He still deserves to be saved and he still needs it. How could Grandpa do this? How could … _Mom_?"

Ty turned at the change in Amy's tone. Lou was coming down the hallway, her arm wrapped around the shoulder of a woman that he'd only seen once in a photograph; one where she had been with Amy, sitting on Pegasus. He could barely make out any of her features under her black death mask, made darker and less filmy by the intensity of her grief. Marion looked confusedly at Ty, and then he swore her eyes fixed on the place where Amy was standing next to him, tears flowing freely down her full cheeks.

"_Mom!_" Amy's shout was more like a scream. In her wild emotion, she released Ty and raced for her mother, desperate to touch her. Amy never made it to Marion's side; she vanished, her hand still outstretched.

**Chapters are published every Tuesday, by the way.**

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	10. Chapter 10

"Ty? Are you all right?"

Ty blinked, shivering as he returned his attention to himself, rather than the spot where Amy had vanished. He could still hear her anguished shout of _'Mom!'. _He'd thought, only moments before, that he'd gotten used to Amy's pain; had become familiar with it. But he knew now that he was wrong. Amy was just starting to leave her denial. This was only going to get worse.

"Fine," he said to Lou. He looked at Marion, staring at her face. Her death veil was the darkest he'd ever seen on a still-living person. "Hi, I'm Ty."

She stared at him, almost uncomprehendingly. He couldn't help but notice that her eyes were the same colour as Amy's. And then Marion turned away from him and into Lou, announcing, "I'm going back to my room."

"Mom," Lou protested.

"Marion," Jack said, making Ty jump. He hadn't realized the old man was so close behind him. "Please eat with us."

Marion shook her head, her hair looking greasy. She was grief personified, and it was breaking Ty's heart.

"You came out here for a reason," Lou said, blocking Marion's path back to her room. "It's been so long since you've spent time with anyone."

"I didn't mean to come out," Marion whispered. "It just … It felt … I thought she was here."

Ty's sympathy gave way to confusion and disbelief. There was no way Marion could have sensed that her daughter was in the house. It wasn't possible. It was very hard for humans to interact with the spirit world – people with genetic abilities, like Ty, being the exception. People _thought_ they encountered spirits all the time, but that didn't mean the encounters were genuine. No, he reasoned, it must have just been coincidence that Marion thought she sensed Amy the same night he brought her into the house.

"Lou, sit down and eat," Jack ordered. He stepped beyond Ty and went to Marion's side, gently taking her arm. "Come on, honey. Let's talk about this."

Marion steeled herself against Jack, not allowing herself to be moved. "Dad, I swear, she was just here. I could feel her … I could feel her!"

Ty watched Marion break down against Jack's shoulder, Lou hovering attentively on the other side of her. He knew it was intrusive to ogle their despair so openly, but he'd never seen this before. He'd never been so close to a deceased person's family. For the first time, he felt the impulse to tell someone alive about his abilities. He was a moment away from walking over to Marion and taking her hands, just to assure her that he could see Amy and that she was okay. His foot shuffled and scuffed against the floor, but then he caught himself. He'd just look like a lying jerk, trying to take advantage of her.

He was still watching the trio when Marion froze. Slowly, she lifted her head from her father and walked into the kitchen. Jack and Lou followed and, after a beat of hesitation, so did Ty. He was more a part of this than they knew. Marion was standing by the sink, staring out the window at Heartland's yard.

"Amy's here."

"Mom, I know you think that, but Amy's gone," Lou said.

Jack gave her a sharp look.

"If we keep treating her like she's _not_ deluded, then she'll never stop acting like it," Lou hissed at her grandfather. "We can't keep letting her believe that Amy's going to find a way to come back. I know what dead means and so should she!" Her lower jaw trembling, and her eyes filled with tears she'd never let anyone see, Lou stormed from the kitchen. Ty heard a door slam somewhere down the hall.

"Dad." Marion was looking over her shoulder.

"Yes?" Jack asked.

"I want to go out to the barn. If she's here, she's probably in the barn."

"Marion, it's time for supper. We'll eat and then we'll go out to the barn, okay?"

It was hard to listen to him try to reason with his daughter as if she were a petulant child instead of a grown woman. Ty wondered if he should slip back outside after all, but since Jack was all but ignoring him, he decided to stay rooted where he was – out of the way. He didn't want to bring anyone's attention to him right now.

"But," Marion protested, "I've never felt her so strongly before. It's like she was in this room. What if I lose that feeling? What if she's out there waiting for me?"

Jack was shaking his head.

"He'll take me!" Marion screeched, her change in pitch making Ty's heart jump. She was pointing straight at him. "He'll take me out to the barn."

Ty gaped at Jack. Jack's moustache twitched, and then he sighed. "Okay, we'll all go out to the barn for a minute, and then we'll come in and eat."

Marion nodded her agreement.

"Me too?" Ty whispered to Jack.

"You too," Jack replied. "She's very grief-stricken –"

Ty held up his hand. "You don't need to explain her behaviour. I don't understand what she's going through, but I understand how much it can change a person. It's okay."

Jack never said 'thank you' but Ty could see it in his eyes. For the first time, he wasn't seeing Jack as a cranky old man, but as a father whose daughter was not who she should be; as a grandfather who had lost his granddaughter. He was seeing Jack as a man who had lived and who had suffered. He felt the humanity in Jack, rather than the tough front he'd been trying to put up for the sake of his family, and Ty felt sorry that he hadn't seen it right away.

"Let's go," Jack said, and he nodded for the door.

They paused to put on their boots and coats, Marion impatiently tugging at the door handle, worried that Amy would be gone. Ty didn't know if she'd even be there. Often it took her a few hours to materialize again after vanishing. Finally, they were out on the porch and then crossing the yard. From the way Marion was sucking in her breath and staring at things, he wondered when the last time she'd been outside was. In all the time that he had lived in the loft, he'd never heard her come out to the barn to see her horse. Pegasus nickered when they walked into the barn and he saw Marion.

"Hi boy," Marion called. She walked over to him, keeping her back to Spartan. "Do you know when she's here? Do you?"

Ty was sure Pegasus did. Animals were amazingly perceptive. Even without the death-bond that Amy had with Spartan, the black horse would have been able to know there was a spirit around. Ty glanced away from Marion to Spartan, who was still in his stall. He was staring at Marion, ears pricked forward in curiousity. Ty wondered how many times Spartan had seen Marion, the other person whom he was bonded with in death, but then he looked away from Marion, as if she had disappointed him in some way. Spartan kicked at the door, but not in the angry way Ty was accustomed too. He was doing it in an attention-seeking way; a way that a normal horse might.

Ty took a step toward Spartan. He was convinced Amy wasn't around right now – he couldn't sense her, and he doubted she would be able to stay away if she heard the voices of her family – which meant Spartan couldn't be beckoning to his ghostly owner and he was less than interested in Marion. The only other person that he would want to see would be Ty. He swallowed, and wondered if it was because of the join-up that he'd accidentally been present for. Could that have caused such a big breakthrough in Spartan? Could he actually want to have someone other than Amy around him?

He shuffled forward little by little, convinced that Spartan was going to snake his grand head toward Ty and bite him – perhaps suck him into his stall and destroy him, like the demon horse everyone thought he was. But Spartan only looked toward Ty, no malice in his eyes. Ty looked at the scars on the horse's coat, underneath the black starry veil, and he had his second epiphany of the night, on the heels of his new understanding of Jack. Spartan was _scared_ – just as Amy had pointed out. He went through something traumatic, only to be brought to a place where people hated him. He wanted someone to care for him. This, Ty could connect with more than anything else. He understood the deep need to be loved.

He pressed his hand against Spartan's neck, and just like earlier, the horse didn't flinch away from his hand. He didn't lean into it, not like the way Ty had seen him cuddle up to Amy, but he welcomed Ty.

"Maybe we can be friends," Ty whispered to him.

Spartan's ears flickered.

"Get away from him!" Marion's voice, cracking like a whip across the barn, startled Spartan. Out of reflex, the horse clamped his teeth around Ty's upper forearm. He pulled away just as quickly, retreating to the back side of his stall and kicking angrily at the wall of the barn.

Ty clenched his teeth together and yanked up his coat sleeve. There were the barest dents left in his skin from the bite, but there was no blood. At worse, he would bruise. Through the thick coat, Spartan had caught little more than skin. Ty looked at Marion.

"What was that?" he demanded.

"You can't touch him," Marion insisted. "He doesn't deserve it!"

"Marion, we talked about this," Jack said, struggling to keep his voice even. "If you're not willing to put him down, then he does need to be taken care of. I put Ty in charge of that."

Marion's lower jaw trembled as she met Ty's eyes. "He killed my daughter."

"No, he didn't." Ty stiffened at the high voice behind him – the one no one else reacted to. "Mom, you can't blame Spartan for this."

He didn't move as Amy walked into view, straight into the face of her mother. Ty watched Marion more carefully. If she truly did sense Amy, now would be the time she would show that the most. But for someone who had come out to the barn desperately sure that Amy was waiting for her, Marion had no reaction now that Amy had manifested in front of her.

"Mom?" Amy reached out her hand to touch Marion's face, but she just passed through it. The blonde teenager turned to look at Ty. "I thought since I could touch Spartan, you know? It's because I touched him when I still thought I was alive …"

She walked toward the horse's stall while she was talking. She walked through the side of the stall. "Come here. I need a hug."

Ty glanced over at Marion again. She was glaring at the horse, but her eyes widened at the change of behaviour in him. He quieted as the unseen girl touched his neck, murmuring to him in a voice that only the horse and the boy could hear.

"He's insane," Marion said. Her expression drooped. "I can't look at him anymore. I was wrong. She's not here."

Marion let Jack put an arm around her shoulders.

"Give us a few minutes," Jack said to Ty, "Then come in for dinner."

"Sure," Ty agreed. He didn't want to be a part of their private family time, anyhow. He had already intruded far too much tonight as it was. He waited until they were at least halfway across the yard before leaning over Spartan's stall door. "Are you okay?"

Amy looked at him. "That was so much harder than I expected. I didn't think that Mom would be like that."

"Grief changes people."

"Not like that," Amy insisted. "Not so drastically. Saying a horse doesn't deserve help? That was what Mom lived for. She would take the most broken and the most abused horses and she would make them love again. She would never give up on an animal."

"Spartan's not just any animal, to any of them."

"He's not my killer either."

"I know." He hesitated. "I'm going back in to get dinner. Do you want to come with?"

Amy shook her head. "I can't, not right now. I'll just stay out here."

"I won't be long."

She smiled at him. "You know you don't need to worry about me, right?"

"I know," he repeated, and smiled back at her.

**Sorry about last week, guys. I promise we're back on schedule!**

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	11. Chapter 11

When Ty stepped into the house, Lou walked out. Her eyes were red and her cheeks were blotchy, but she still held her head high. She had truck keys dangling from her middle finger – she was fleeing the property. Ty didn't know a lot about grief personally, but he would bet that it could become oppressive and all-encompassing, like everything could. He stood by the door, listening as Lou started up Jack's truck and drove away, trying to escape the cloud that anyone could feel sitting over Heartland. Once he saw brake lights, Ty took of his shoes and stepped into the kitchen.

Jack was sitting alone at the kitchen table. There was a full plate of food sitting across from him. Ty took the seat, playing with the fork but not taking a bite. He looked at Jack, who knitted his gnarled fingers together. "We should talk."

"Okay. About what?" Ty only asked to keep the conversation going. He knew they were going to talk about Marion, probably Amy, and possibly Lou.

"You came here probably expecting a different atmosphere. At the time my daughter made that deal with your probation officer, it _was_ a different atmosphere. When you arrived, I should have had a frank conversation with you about our lives, and why things are the way they are. I have to apologize for the way I've been acting. It doesn't have anything to do with you."

"I understand." Ty didn't have anyone close enough to him to consider family, but if he did, he knew that the hardest thing of all would be to lose that person. "I was told about your granddaughter. I'm sorry, Jack."

"Thank you." Jack blinked, long and slow. "Amy, Lou, and Marion are all very strong women. I blame that trait on my late wife."

Jack's eyes held the briefest flash of humour, but Ty felt the atmosphere become more solemn. Jack had, of course, been married. But he'd lost her too.

"Amy came home one night and it was pouring rain. She convinced Marion that they had to go save a horse. I tried to tell Marion it was too dangerous. But Marion and Amy, they save things. Marion's always done it, ever since she was a little girl, and Amy was just like her mother. I tell you this because I want you to understand how different we all are. I feel like you deserve that, and I don't tell you this lightly."

"I don't take it lightly," Ty assured Jack, his voice nothing but a whisper.

"When we lost Amy, Marion broke … There's no other word for it. She thinks _she_ was the one that failed Amy. She blames that horse as much as she can, but she blames herself too. She's given up on the business, on life, because she thinks she's a failure and that she can't do what she's always done."

Ty opened his mouth again, but this time, nothing came out. He had no idea what to say. Jack's honesty had left him with nothing but respect for the suffering of this family,

"Lou left Alberta years ago. She went to New York to have her own life and pursue her own passions. Marion and I knew she had to go, although it was hard to watch her leave, but Amy never understood. She felt abandoned by Lou, who barely came back. She hasn't been here in years … She and Amy were never as close as sisters can be. She's been wondering 'what if' ever since I had to call and tell her about the accident." Jack's voice hitched. "Marion's given up. I've been trying to keep going. But Lou has made it her goal to revive all of us, as if by making sure we're okay and everything is as close to how it should be as possible, it'll make up for how little she and Amy have talked."

Ty reached across the small table to touch Jack's arm. "I'm really sorry."

"What can you do?" Jack's voice was hoarse. He cleared his throat. "Eat up. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"See you tomorrow morning," Ty echoed, recognizing that the moment was over.

He watched Jack leave the kitchen and then he ate his food as quickly as he could, trying to fill the pit that had developed in his stomach. He didn't _want_ this; couldn't stand to become involved in the emotional uproar of this family. Ty had been in group homes and detention centres his entire life, running away from emotions; telling himself not to get close to anyone because then he wouldn't get hurt. He saw the pain that loving someone could cause people; saw it on the faces of the group home kids, as abandoned and mistreated as he had been, and on the faces of the spirits he couldn't avoid, moments before they left Earth for good. Ty hadn't come here to become involved in this family's life and he certainly hadn't come here with the intention to meet the most illogical ghost he'd ever encounter.

He stared at Jack's empty seat, felt the emotion and vulnerability the old man had left behind, and Ty knew. He knew he needed to cut off familiarity. It would be easier for him to view Jack as a crass old man, Marion an insane shut-in, and Lou as a boss of sorts than for him to actually sympathize. He just needed to do his job, get off probation, and then get on with the rest of his life. He had to start treating Amy like any other spirit – namely, letting her come to her own conclusions, as all spirits did.

He left the house and went to the barn. Before he even walked in the door, he could hear Amy singing. He paused, taking a moment to listen. She had a sweet voice, and he wanted to keep hearing it, almost forgetting the deal that he had made with himself a few moments before. He couldn't get wrapped up in her; she was just another ghost. He set his jaw and walked into the barn, not even glancing at the slight blonde. He couldn't, not right now, not when he was so close to her family.

But Amy wasn't going to let him go without a conversation. "Dinner took a while. Is Mom all right? Grandpa? I saw Lou leave."

Another harsh reminder that he was her link to her family. But Ty kept his eyes on the floor, not willing to look at her and see her family's pain. It would only be harder to keep the distance from them that he needed. He was used to distance. When he arrived here, it had been something he'd been good at. But Amy … She'd managed to suck him into her world in a few short days.

"I'm going to bed," he said, dismissing her.

He began to climb the stairs up to the loft. He was hoping that she wouldn't follow, but he wasn't surprised when she did.

"Aren't we going to talk?" she asked, her footsteps far lighter than his.

"About what?"

"The house, my family. You know I need you to understand this. I'm lost otherwise."

Ty paused in the doorway of his room, turning around to face her. "I'm not a therapist."

She crossed her arms over her stomach, frowning at him. "I thought you were a friend."

"I can't be that either."

"What?"

"When you're ready to cross over, I'll help. Until then, there's nothing that I can do."

"That's a lie," Amy cried, shaking her head. "Everything you've done has been the opposite of that sentence. You've been helping me since we started talking … Did something happen when you were in the house?"

"This is the way things are," Ty said, although he didn't sound as stern as he wanted to. "I don't deal with spirits until they're ready to cross over."

"So I'm just a spirit?" Amy clarified.

Ty clenched his hand around the doorknob and allowed himself one look into her pained eyes. Keeping his voice steady, he said, "You're dead. What else should I call you?"

He didn't let her say anything else. He closed the door in her face and stood on the other side, waiting to see if she would come in – he knew that she could. She didn't appear and, eventually, he went to bed.

(-.-)

He was dying. Ice was burying itself into his heart. Ty gasped violently, bursting upright in bed and grabbing for his chest. His hands clenched around a freezing forearm. He looked up, seeing Amy's silhouette towering over him in the dark. He threw her arm away from him, only to curl his own arms around himself in an effort to get warm again.

"What?" Ty forced out, his teeth still shattering.

"You're being an ass. Which, I wouldn't really mind if you had consistently been one, but you _haven't._ Which means something happened."

"Maybe I am an ass and my true colours are coming through."

"I thought about that too," Amy admitted. "See, I'm smarter than you think. But I don't believe you're just an ass. You've been nice and helpful, like I tried to tell you before. I need you to still be like that, so you need to tell me what happened. Maybe we can help each other, instead of you just helping me."

Ty thought about denying her again, but the desperation in her voice got to him. She hadn't pointed it out explicitly, but she didn't need to. She was completely reliant on him, in a way that no one had ever been before. And if that was scary for him, it must be doubly so for her. She had gone from being alive and having complete autonomy to walking through people and only having one person in the world who knew she was still there.

"Why do you think I need to be helped?" he asked her, and then he sighed.

Amy looked a little triumphant. "Because you didn't just say 'I don't need help'. Also, people and horses aren't that different. I know what needing help looks like. So, do you want to talk about it?"

"People really cared about you; they're destroyed that you're gone, and it's changed them in ways that I can't imagine, because I'm only seeing the aftermath. I've never known the families of the spirits. I usually just encounter them and they say 'I know I'm dead, I just don't know where to go from here' and I tell them what I'm supposed to, and they find their way to the next life. That's all it's supposed to be."

"What do you tell them?" Amy asked, becoming distracted for a moment.

"No cheating. You're not ready for those words," Ty said quickly.

"Sorry … Being close to my family is weird, I get it … I think. Sometimes I feel like I'm experiencing everything at once and then other times, I feel totally numb to the world around me. Is that normal for ghosts?"

"I think it's just normal for people."

"As long as it's normal for someone." Amy shrugged. "So, can we agree? No being weird. Honesty, communication, like when you're working with a horse."

"I don't even know how to ride," Ty griped, "I have no idea what working with a horse actually entails."

"You need to learn to ride."

"Like hell I do."

"We'll work on that tomorrow." Amy smiled at him in the darkness, although he could see how forced it was, even in the shadows. "Everything will be fine, Ty. I really believe it."

He didn't see how she could. But if Amy could find optimism, then so could he. "I think tonight was just strange."

"You can say that again." Amy went to sit on the end of his bed, but she fell through, hitting the floor hard enough to bruise if she'd still been able. Ty couldn't hold in his chuckles at the sight of her eyes peeking at him from the end of the bed. "It's not that funny." Her eyebrows knit together; she was frowning. But he was still laughing.

"It's a little funny," Ty laughed. He held out his hand to her. "Come on."

He braced himself for the coolness of her fingers. As soon as her hand collided with his, she popped to the top of the comforter, able to sit atop the bed. She looked at her conjoined hands.

"So if I let go, I fall through again, right?"

"Maybe."

"I don't understand the rules."

"Neither do I," Ty admitted. He let go of her hand.

She stayed atop the bed. She beamed as the mattress remained solid beneath her. "I never knew I'd be so happy to be able to sit on something. Guess you really don't know what you've got until it's gone."

The harshest truth of all.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	12. Chapter 12

"_I ride an old paint, I lead an old dan_."

Ty was only half-listening to Amy's singing as he mucked out the barn. When he was on the last of the stalls, Mallory burst into the barn.

"Ty!" she said brightly.

"Hi, Mallory."

"How are you?" Mallory asked him.

"Oh, fine." Ty said. "You?"

"Could be better," Mallory admitted, grabbing Copper's haltered head so that he couldn't turn away from her. "I mean, Dad wants to go back on tour but Mom's getting all depressed because she just got home and she doesn't want to leave which means she's eating everything in the house! Like, hello, if you eat all the bagels, Mom, what am I supposed to have for breakfast? Also, there's this weird kid at school that keeps trying to talk to me." Mallory lowered her voice. "I think he has a crush on me."

"Oh really?" Ty said. He moved the wheelbarrow out of Pegasus' stall before he took the horse off his crossties and returned him to his clean stall.

"Mmhmm," Mallory confirmed, wrinkle in her nose. She reached up under Copper's mane to scratch his neck. "Hey!"

"Hey what?" Ty repeated, staring around the barn, trying to see if something was wrong. Everything looked as it should. Paint's stall was empty, as he was out with Jack. Pegasus was munching on hay. Spartan was half asleep, courtesy of Amy who was sitting in the corner of his stall; Ty couldn't see her, but he had been hearing her all morning as she crooned to the horse.

"Spartan looks clean."

"Yeah, Jack's making me take care of him."

"Not like you've groomed him yet!" Amy called from the stall floor. Ty ignored the remark. Amy wouldn't have let him do it, as she enjoyed caring for the horse herself.

"You got close to him?" Mallory gasped. "W_ow_."

Ty shrugged. He couldn't very well admit that he had help in getting close to the horse, even if he and Spartan could be categorized as acquaintances at best.

Amy popped up in Spartan's stall, leaning on the half door. "Ty, you should ask Mallory to teach you to ride."

Ty couldn't help it; he whipped his head around to stare blankly at her.

"You need to learn and Mallory's a good teacher. She'll put you on Copper. He's good with beginners."

Ty turned away from her. No way. He would take care of the horses – groom them, feed them, turn them out, clean their stalls – but there was no way that he was going to get _on_ one. He could do his job with both feet on the ground. He picked up the handles of the wheelbarrow again and took the contents out to the manure pile. When he returned to the barn, Amy was still standing in Spartan's stall, staring at him expectantly, while Mallory had Copper tied in the hall.

"Ask her," Amy prompted, inclining her head toward the short blonde. "Or I will."

He wished he could dare her to try.

Mallory was humming under her breath, dragging a brush across Copper's bronze back. Ty frowned as he heard the song. It was the same one that Amy had been singing when Mallory came into the barn.

"_I ride an old paint, I lead an old dan_," Mallory sang. "_I'm goin' to Montana to throw the hoolihan. They feed in the coulees, they water in the draw. Their tails are all matted, their backs are all raw."_

The next two lines, Amy sang with her, "_Ride around little doggies, ride around them slow. For their fiery and the snuffy are rarin' to go._"

Ty couldn't take it anymore and he interrupted Mallory. "What's that song?"

"_I Ride An Old Paint_. Amy sings …" Mallory froze and shook her head. "Amy _sang_ that song all the time. It just popped into my head. It's funny, I didn't even know that I knew the words."

Amy jumped over Spartan's stall door, coming to stand right behind Mallory. "Did you hear me?" she asked in the younger girl's ear. "Did you hear me singing that when you got here?"

Mallory didn't react to the ghost. She grabbed the hoof pick, reaching for Copper's feet. Amy watched her do it and then she tugged at her own hair in frustration.

"I keep hoping that someone else will be able to see me," she said to Ty, leaving Mallory's side and coming to stand by him. "Not that I don't like talking to you but there's so many things that I'd say, if I had the chance."

Ty nodded. He understood. He was standing there, lost in thought, when Amy grabbed him with both hands. He jumped at the freezing cold, gasping for breath. He glared at her as best as he could, trying not to violently fling her away so that he could still appear normal to Mallory.

"I'll let go when you ask Mallory to teach you to ride," Amy said. "You need to learn."

Ty's teeth began to chatter. "M-Mallory?"

Amy let go of him with one of her hands and he began to feel a little bit more normal.

"Yeah?"

"I was wondering –" Ty paused to give himself a moment to unbend his pride. He was about to ask a _twelve-year-old_ for help "– if you would teach me how to ride. Lou said you might be able to do it."

Mallory lit up. "Of _course _I can teach you! I'm a _great_ teacher! So is Copper!" She rested a hand against the gelding. "When do you want to start?"

"As soon as possible," Ty said, glancing at Amy to see if that answer would appease her. She looked content and released her other hand.

"We could start right now!" Mallory announced.

"Uh …"

"I know you're done Jack's list," Mallory said. "Don't even try to lie to me!"

"I was going to say that right now works just fine."

Mallory looked at him skeptically. "_Right_. Well, first things first. How much riding have you done?"

Ty pretended to calculate. "Approximately … none."

Mallory groaned. "Copper, we have our work cut out for us."

"Hey! Have a little faith."

Mallory pursed her lips and gave him a once over. "No, I don't think we do." She frowned at him. "Do you know how to tack a horse?"

"Of course."

"Okay. You tack Copper and I'll find you a helmet."

"Is a helmet really necessary?" Ty asked. "I mean, it's not like he's a motorcycle."

"You need a helmet," Amy said, while Mallory told him, "All beginners wear helmets."

Ty opened his mouth but the young girl put her hands on her hips. "No arguments."

Ty nodded and she scampered off, leaving Ty with Copper and his tack. He picked up the saddle blanket and spread it across Copper's back.

"You ready to ride?" Amy asked, standing on Copper's other side.

"If I fall, I'm blaming you," Ty whispered. He wasn't entirely sure where Mallory was, but the barn wasn't that big, and he didn't want to be overheard.

"I'll play nurse if you manage to seriously injure yourself."

"I have as much faith in your healing skills as I do in my riding skills … or Mallory's teaching skills," he added, hefting the saddle into his arms.

"Mallory's a good teacher."

"She's like, eleven."

"Twelve," Amy corrected him. "And she knows a lot more than you."

"Oh, because that's hard," Ty scoffed.

"So you admit you know nothing?" Amy teased.

Ty opened his mouth to retort, but then he ended up shaking his head and smiling. "Nothing about horses."

"That's why you have me!" Amy said, and then she fixed her gaze over Ty's shoulder. "And Mallory."

Ty slipped Copper's halter off and immediately put the bridle in its place. Copper had stood calmly for the entire ordeal of being tacked, much like Pegasus did. Ty was thankful for that. He didn't know what he would have done if Copper had acted a bit more spirited than the aged gelding he was used to practicing on.

"I found you a helmet!" Mallory announced. She reached up and jammed something on his head. "Oh, good, it fits! I was worried that your head might be too big."

Ty reached up to buckle the helmet's straps and Mallory let out a screech. "You do _not_ leave a horse's reins just dangling like that!"

"Sorry! Sorry!" Ty exclaimed. He held the reins awkwardly in one hand as he did up the helmet.

Mallory assessed him and then she beckoned him out of the barn. Leading the willing Copper, Ty followed her out to the round pen. He didn't have to look to know that Amy was trailing behind the horse. He hoped that he didn't make a huge fool out of himself. He knew that he wouldn't be good at riding right away, but if twelve-year-old Mallory and seemingly ancient Jack could handle riding, Ty was convinced that it couldn't be _that_ hard to learn.

He, Mallory, and Copper stood in the middle of the pen.

"The hardest part is going to be getting you into the saddle," she said. "I don't know how effective I'll be at helping you leg-up, so you might to have to manage it on your own."

He wasn't entirely sure what 'leg-up' was, but Ty had seen Jack mount Paint many times in the few weeks that he'd been at Heartland. The old man made it look effortless.

"Left foot in the stirrup," Mallory instructed, reaching out to hold said stirrup for him. "If you put your left hand on the horn and your right hand … Yep, right about there. That should help you get up."

His hands being in the right position would do nothing if he couldn't lift his leg up high enough to reach the stirrup. His toes grazed the bottom of it but nothing Ty did could make him get his foot into the stirrup. He began to feel a strange cramping in his hip.

He dropped his foot down onto the dirt with a thump. "Can't we lower the stirrup or something?"

"If we put it down too low then you won't be able to get high enough to swing your other leg over to the other side of Copper," Mallory explained quickly. Ty glanced at Copper's back. Oh, yeah. His other leg had to lift too. At this rate, falling off wasn't going to be a problem at all. He was never going to get on. "Well, maybe a hole or two," Mallory conceded after a minute of Ty staring blankly at her.

Ty stepped out of her way as he practiced hands lowered the stirrup a few notches.

"But no more!" Mallory said sternly.

Ty nodded and took a deep breath. He was going to get on this horse. He grabbed the saddle like Mallory had told him to and then he tried to lift his leg again. His toes grazed the stirrup's hold and he managed to barely hook his toes inside. He felt Mallory's hands at his heel, forcing his foot further into the stirrup. The cramping in his hip returned and Ty grit his teeth against the sensation.

"Now, you're going to use your left foot to step up and then you're going to lift your other leg up, over Copper's butt and then on the other side." Mallory walked around to Ty's other side. "Don't kick me in the face. I'll try to help boost your leg up as best as I can, okay? On the count of three … One … Two … Three!"

Ty forced all of his weight down onto his left foot. Using all of the strength he had in his arms, Ty pulled himself upward toward the horse's back. As promised, he felt Mallory's hands on his leg, helping him in his climb. Just when Ty was sure that he was going to have to collapse back down to earth, he somehow manage to get his leg up to lay against Copper's rump, his foot touching the root of Copper's tail. He dragged his foot across to the other side of Copper, finding himself sitting squarely in the Western saddle.

Ty momentarily forgot to breathe as he surveyed the world from a horse's back. He had no idea that it was possible to feel so powerful and so vulnerable at the exact same time. He was at the complete mercy of the thousand pound horse that he had no idea how to control. He gulped. Riding was not a good idea. Amy was wrong. He didn't have to learn this.

"Well," Mallory said, looking up from the ground. "I'm sure eventually you'll start to look at a cowboy. How do your stirrups feel?"

"Uh, feel?" Were stirrups supposed to feel anything?

"Do you even have your foot in the other one?"

Ty glanced down at his right foot, dangling helplessly against Copper's stomach. Hesitantly, he lifted it and put it in the stirrup, jamming it in like his left foot was.

"I know the stirrups aren't even. Which one do you like better?"

"The right one," Ty said automatically.

Mallory adjusted the left one. "Do they feel the same length?"

"I think so."

"Good. Now pick up your reins … No, fingers like this." Mallory picked up a slice of rein on Copper's neck, showing Ty the correct hold. After a few finger fumbles, he managed it.

"Now what?" he asked Mallory, afraid of the answer.

"Now, you walk!"

Yup, definitely afraid of the answer.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	13. Chapter 13

"Could you at least try to sit up a little bit straighter?" Mallory asked.

_"No_," Ty managed as Copper did another circle around the pen. Sitting up straight made him feel like he was going to fall off.

"Pick your hands up off his neck and sit up," Mallory commanded. "You're going to learn this properly."

Ty's thighs ached as he held onto the slick leather saddle with his legs. Most importantly, the area _between_ his legs was starting to hurt. How could Jack ride for hours every day? There had to be some male trick to it; something that Mallory wouldn't know to tell him.

"My head is not where I need a helmet," he grumbled to Amy as he and Copper sauntered past the area where she was sitting.

"If you need another one somewhere, you go for it," Amy told him, "but you're leaving the one you have on your head right where it is."

"What are you complaining about now?" Mallory inquired, seeing that his lips were moving.

"Nothing! Nothing!" Ty assured her. She was strict. "How much longer do I have to stay up here?"

He'd been riding for what felt like three hours now.

"It's been fifteen minutes," Mallory informed him with a sigh. "Learning how to ride takes work, dedication, and _time_. You need to be patient."

"Not exactly one of my virtues," Ty said.

Copper stopped in the middle of a step. He leant his head down to scratch at his foreleg and Ty gasped, yanking on the reins to keep Copper's neck up, otherwise, Ty felt like he could go sliding straight down to Copper's head. Copper's ears flicked back toward Ty, but otherwise he made no expressions of displeasure.

Mallory crossed her arms over her chest, watching her student and her horse. "Get him walking."

"Walking, right."

"And sit up!"

Ty straightened his back while Copper was still; it was less scary that way.

"Heels," Mallory said as a reminder.

Ty readjusted his feet, picked his hands up from Copper's neck before Mallory could prompt him too, and then he gently tapped Copper's wide belly with his heels. The horse set off at the same slow pace that he'd been walking at before.

"Your posture is better," Mallory admitted. "If you manage to sit properly for another fifteen minutes, I'll let you go … Do you want to try to trot?"

"_Trot?_" Ty repeated. Whatever that was, it did _not_ sound fun.

"It's a faster gait. Not like a canter or a gallop. It's a bit bouncy though."

At the word 'bouncy' Ty immediately shook his head. Walking was bad enough for today. "Maybe next lesson?"

"Fine," Mallory conceded.

"Chicken," Amy accused.

Ty met her light eyes and nodded. Who wouldn't be a chicken when trying to control an animal that could throw you off, run away, or kill you at a moment's notice? Horse people were certifiable, Ty decided.

"Switch directions using the diagonal."

Ty surveyed the pen. Mallory had taught him that word and what it meant in terms of riding.

"Use your legs, not just your reins," Mallory reminded him as he made a wide turn with Copper. The horse plodded along as Ty tried to remember which leg he should be pressing against the horse when turning. He made another successful turn and was feeling quite pleased with himself … until he realized that he was going in the same direction that he had been when Mallory had told him to switch directions.

"Well, you tried," Amy said teasingly as Ty made his second attempt in switching directions.

Ty repeated the process, exception this time he made sure that he changed the way that he was going.

"Second time's the charm," Mallory said, keeping her dark brown eyes on him.

Ty hated the feeling of being a student; he'd hated it when he was in school (back when he actually made an effort to attend). It always felt like judgement, to have a teacher's eye on him. He always felt like they were waiting for him to do something wrong. Mallory's eyes were no different. He had liked the little blonde girl when they were both on the ground and had a feeling that, when he got off the horse, they would go back to being friendly. But when he was on the horse and she was analyzing his every move in order to correct them, Ty wished that she were standing anywhere else staring at anyone else.

"Good," Mallory said. "Okay, bring Copper into the centre here."

Ty steered the horse over to Mallory, pulling back his reins to get him to stop.

"You need to be a little gentler with the reins and remember your posture, but you did better than expected," Mallory told him.

"Really?"

Mallory nodded. "When do you want to have your next lesson?"

"How long is it going to take me to recover from this lesson?" Ty asked and Mallory laughed.

"I'll give you … three days," she announced. "And then I'm coming back for you."

"She's being generous!" Amy informed Ty with a shout. "Usually she's a little bit of a slave-driver with her students."

Ty would believe it. "All right … three days."

"Now, to get down take both feet out of the stirrups. I said _both_, get that out of there! Okay, now lean forward, bring your right leg around his butt again, yeah, like that, and then just slide down his belly."

Ty dropped to the soft earth with a thud and the bottoms of his feet began to sting, even inside of the heavy boots that he'd borrowed from Jack to wear while working.

"Make sure you put the helmet back," Mallory said as they left the pen.

"Where are you going?" Ty asked her.

Mallory lifted up her own helmet, which she had dangling in her right hand, and then held Copper's reins up, which were in her left. "Hello, I'm going for my ride? Walking in circles with you for half an hour isn't exactly Copper's idea of fun."

"Eh, sorry Copper," Ty apologized and Mallory looked pleased over the gesture.

"He's used to beginners," Mallory said, stopping in the yard and giving Copper a kiss along the white strip on his face. She strapped her helmet on her head, readjusted the stirrups, and then boosted herself into the saddle with an ease that, after his lesson, Ty was jealous of.

He stood there with her as she readjusted her other stirrup and then she picked up her reins.

"If we're not back within two hours, send out a search party," she said, and they took off down the driveway.

Ty watched her move Copper into a springy step that he assumed was a trot. He turned around as she disappeared, gasping as he realized that Amy was right behind him and that he'd almost run into her.

"You're going to give me a heart attack!" he complained.

Amy shrugged. "You're a big boy, you should be able to handle it."

"I'm never getting on a horse again," he grumbled as they headed back into the barn.

"And why not?" Amy asked. "You did really well! I mean, you're no expert but you stayed on! I have faith in you."

"Yeah, well, you're the kind of person who sounds like they have faith in everybody," Ty told her. "That's not exactly a compliment."

Amy shook her head at him. "Maybe I have a little more faith in your than the average per – what the hell?"

Ty stared at her, never having heard her curse before. He followed her angry gaze to the interior of the barn. Lou was standing there with the man that Ty had seen her with a while ago; the older man who was, once more, running his hand along Pegasus' neck.

"Oh, Ty! How did your lesson go?" Lou asked him. "I saw Mallory teaching you."

"It went as well as I could expect," Ty said honestly.

Beside him, Amy looked livid. "Do you know who that man is!?" she screeched. "Do you?" She looked at Ty's face. "Ask him his name. I need to be sure."

"Hi," Ty said, reaching his hand out toward the man, "I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Ty Borden, I work here."

The man removed his hand from Pegasus to shake Ty's. "I'm Tim Fleming."

"Fleming?" Ty repeated. "You're a relative, then?"

"He's –"

Whatever Lou was going to say was cut off by a brush going flying toward Tim, whose eyes snapped to Ty.

"Did you just throw something at me!?" he demanded, angry.

"He didn't move, Dad!" Lou cried.

_Dad_? Ty locked his eyes on Tim again. Amy's and Lou's father? Another brush came flying past Ty's head toward Tim, this one catching him on his cheek. Ty whipped around to see Amy picking brushes up out of the grooming kit by Spartan's stall and flinging them toward her father.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?" she screamed, loud enough that Ty wanted to clamp his hands over his ears. "You're _not _welcome here! Lou, get away from him!"

Another brush went flying.

"What the hell is this?" Tim growled, ducking out of the way of the brush, although the hoof pick bounced off his left arm.

"Stop!" Ty yelled at Amy, unable to control himself when one of the rubber brushes hit him in the back of the head.

"No! He doesn't deserve to be here!" Having run out of ammunition, Amy threw the plastic caddy that the brushes had been held in, catching Tim's upper thigh. "Grandpa's going to kill him if he sees him!"

"What the hell?" Tim repeated.

"I don't know, let's go," Lou said, pushing Tim toward the door. She looked at Ty, frowning. "You have some explaining to do."

"I –" Ty squeaked, but by then she was gone. Frustrated, Ty turned to Amy. "What were you thinking?"

"My father abandoned my family when I was a little girl," Amy explained. If she'd still been able to cry, Ty was sure that tears would be streaming down her face, as her expression was one of devastation. "He was a drug addict and a drunk. It nearly killed Mom. It's what made Lou run away. He never called, never wrote a card, nothing! Why is he here?"

"Because he heard about you?" Ty suggested.

"What good is that going to do?" Amy screeched. "I'm dead! I'm dead and if I meant anything to him he would have been here ten years ago; five years ago; _last year_. He can't let Mom see him because she's bad enough; Grandpa swore he'd kill Dad if he ever saw him again. What is Lou thinking, bringing him to Heartland? What is she thinking even talking to him?"

"I don't know!"

"She's dumber than I thought," Amy decided with finality. "That's got to be it."

"I don't know about that," Ty said. Lou didn't seem dumb in any capacity. Overbearing, maybe, but that had nothing to do with intelligence.

"I wish I could yell at her. Maybe then she'd see reason!"

"Okay, great, we'll play therapist later, but right now, we need to talk about what you were thinking, throwing things at him!"

"I just couldn't stand looking at his face," Amy spat.

"Well, how am I supposed to explain it?"

"That's selfish," Amy told him. "I'm having an emotional crisis."

"And what you did wasn't selfish?"

"Just say you can't explain it because, really, you _can't_ without sounding like a psych case."

Ty sighed. "If you see him again then you can't pull anymore stunts."

"If I see him again, I'm going to throw something," Amy insisted. "No one can hear me anymore – no one but you and you won't tell them that I'm here – so I have to do something. Especially when it comes to him. He doesn't belong here, Ty. He doesn't deserve to speak to Lou or mourn me or anything like it. I can't stand the thought of it. And if Mom were to see him … I'm just trying to look out for my family and this is the only way that I have left to do it."

"Amy …"

"Can't you understand that?" she pleaded.

Ty had no answer for her so, instead, he reached for her, pulling her frigid body into a hug. She went stiff in his hold for a moment before she collapsed against him, tearlessly sobbing. Ty held her as tightly as he dared, thinking that she felt so real under his hands that it would be halfway easy to close his eyes and ignore the fact that she didn't _have_ to breathe; that she didn't have a pulse; that she was so frozen. It would be halfway easy to pretend that Amy Fleming were still alive.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	14. Chapter 14

Ty let go of Amy as he heard footsteps come near the barn door. "You, stay," he ordered her.

She looked annoyed at the command.

"You got me into this," Ty reminded her. "It's only fair that you stay."

"Since it was all my fault you're in trouble, you'd think you'd want me to go away," Amy sniffed. Still, she used Ty's shoulders to boost herself onto Spartan's stall, throwing one leg over each side of it, making sure that her dress was settled modestly between her legs. "But, fine, I'll stay right here."

Ty stayed close to her side as Lou entered the barn, arms crossed over her chest. Ty was unsettled by the harsh look in her eye as she swept her gaze around the barn, settling on the brushes that were still strewn around in front of Pegasus' stall.

"Do you want to start or do you want me to?" Lou asked him.

"I don't know what you want me to say! _I _didn't do anything! You even told your father that I didn't move! I don't know what happened here anymore than you do."

Lou didn't look like she believed what he was saying. "The thing is, I clearly heard you say 'stop'. Except, there was no one there."

Ty glared at Amy out of the corner of his eye and she had the decency to look contrite. Ty bit down on the inside of his cheek and quickly answered, "I wasn't saying it to anyone in particular. The brushes were hitting all three of us. I didn't want to get whacked with a hoof pick any more than your father did."

Lou walked over to the space that Amy had been standing in during the ordeal. "You looked over here."

"That's where the brushes were coming from! Why wouldn't I look there?" Throughout the years, Ty had gotten used to lying about his gift. He'd half-assed explanations to acquaintances as spirits hung off his arm and held his hand up to his ear like he was talking into a small cell phone while having conversations. Those things had never been hard to do. Lying like this was hard to do. He'd never been so closely involved with the victim and her family. He'd never had to look a grieving woman in the eye and claim ignorance, when the spirit was sitting calmly behind him. Ty wished that he didn't have his gift and that Amy had never died.

"You're a horrible liar," Lou accused. "I don't know what you're hiding, but you're hiding something. Need I remind you that you are here on probation? The last thing that this family needs is to be toyed with and if you are going to be disrespectful, then I will have to call Clint Riley and explain that this is not the place for you."

"_No_," Ty gasped. The thought of returning to Clint Riley was completely unfathomable; not only was he comfortable here – dare he even say, he _liked_ Heartland – but there was Amy. Ty couldn't leave her behind in limbo. "Lou, I wouldn't do that! I'm not trying to be disrespectful and I really don't want to make your life harder. I don't know what happened with the brushes."

"You're a horrible liar," Lou repeated, and then her shoulders sagged forward. "I don't think you're a bad kid. I like having you here, but I have to protect what's left of my family. Can't you understand that?"

Ty started as Lou said the same thing that Amy had only minutes before. Unlike Amy, he couldn't draw the thorny woman into a hug. Still, he understood Lou almost as much as he understood her deceased sister, and he nodded. "I'd explain if I could, but I can't."

Lou wiped a hand underneath of her eyes. "Do you want to hear something crazy?"

Ty nodded, speechless as he saw tears line her lashes.

"It looked like those brushes were coming out of nowhere and my first thought was 'Amy'. For a moment, I was so convinced that she was here." Lou let out a half-bitter laugh. "I'm getting to be as crazy as Mom. Dead is dead."

Amy jumped from the stall door and Ty froze. She picked up one of the hoof picks near Ty's feet. He desperately wanted to hiss _'don't_' but was paralyzed. If he said something, Lou would only call him out on it. If he stayed silent, perhaps then he could claim complete ignorance. Looking completely unsure, Amy stood between Ty and her sister and then she opened her hand, offering Lou the hoof pick.

Lou's eyes locked on the floating hoof pick. She screamed once and then fainted.

"Lou!" Amy cried, the hoof pick clattering to the floor.

"What did you do?" Ty hissed. "What were you thinking?"

"She thought about me!" Amy cried. "I just … I wanted her to know."

Ty rolled his eyes, thoroughly annoyed with Amy. He gently shook Lou's shoulder. He hoped that she'd wake up immediately. The floor was made of hard stone and he worried about what he would do if Lou had managed to knock herself out. How would he explain it to _Jack_? Just as Ty started to become terrified at the thought of the old man, Lou's eyes began to flutter open.

"Are you okay?" he asked anxiously, crouching over her.

Lou frowned, slowly sitting up. He watched her look around the barn and then she shook her head. "I have to go inside."

"Let me walk with you," Ty insisted as Lou hefted herself to her feet. She stood there, tilting from side to side. There was no way that she could make it to the house okay. "You might have a concussion."

"I don't want you anywhere near me," Lou snapped. "Now, I'm going inside. You … just … clean up this mess!" she ordered.

Amy tagged along behind her sister as she walked toward the house. Ty stood in the door of the barn, watching Lou cross the yard. He didn't want to get yelled at if he followed her, but he was worried for her safety. After all, Amy couldn't catch her as she fell. But Lou was stubborn enough to make it to the house without falling. Once she had closed Heartland's front door behind her – and in Amy's face – Ty turned around to face the interior of the barn. He quickly picked up Amy's mess, organizing the grooming kit and placing it back in its proper spot. He even remembered to hang his helmet up like Mallory had warned him to.

Unsure of what else to do, although Ty was sure that there was something productive that he could be doing, Ty sat down on the floor of the barn. He felt the drop in temperature as Amy walked in.

"You can't do things like that."

"It's –"

"Hard," Ty completed for her. He looked up at her youthful face, trying to comprehend just how hard it was for her, but he couldn't wrap his head around that kind of pain. "I know. But, Amy, you … They … Look, the spirit world doesn't exist for people."

"It exists for you!"

"_Normal_ people," Ty corrected.

"What do you want me to say? That I'm going to ignore my family? That I'm going to pretend I'm not here?"

"Yes!" Ty exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Amy, you're _dead_. You're not supposed to be here."

Her face collapsed. "What? Do _you_ want me to leave? Do you think _they_ want me to leave? Do you think _I_ want to leave?"

"This isn't about me!" Ty cried, quickly ignoring the fact that it wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to know her. "Amy, your family is already grieving for you! Think of what it's going to be like if you give them a sense of false hope and then you move on and take it all away? It'll put them back to square one."

Amy shook her head at him, looking positively livid. In this moment, Ty was more scared of Amy than he had ever thought of being of Lou. "_Do not_ make it sound like I haven't thought about my family! _Do not_ make it sound like I'm completely disregarding them. I just want to be able to say goodbye!"

"You don't get to!" Ty roared, getting into her face. "Dead is dead, Amy. It's just as Lou said! You've been dead for months! There's no such things as second chances. You don't get a goodbye from the grave! All you get to do is move on and see them all on the other side!"

"I hate you."

Amy pushed him out of the way and stormed to Spartan's stall. Staring at the back of her head, watching her delicate hands shake as she opened the bolt, Ty felt regret flood through him. He couldn't speak so impulsively. He knew he wasn't the right person for this job, but he didn't think that he could get it so wrong. He'd just crossed so many lines that he didn't think that he could recover.

"Amy, please –"

"Shut up! You _don't _get to talk to me! Just because you're the one person that can see me doesn't mean you get to treat me like that! I didn't think that I was a 'spirit' to you, Ty! I thought that I was your friend and I thought that you understood! How can dead be dead when I'm standing right here?"

He peeked into Spartan's stall.

"How can dead be dead when I can still do this?" she asked, running her hand along the length of Spartan's neck. "How can dead be dead when Mom can know that I'm in the house and Mallory starts singing the same song that I just finished? It doesn't work like that!"

"It does," Ty said, his voice impossibly soft, although Amy remained irate.

Before he could react, Amy had pitched herself onto Spartan's back. The black horse snorted as Amy lay on his neck, the ceilings too low for her to be in any other position. Spartan took an uneasy step backward, and Ty could see the uncertainty in his eyes.

"Go!" Amy screamed, and for a moment, Ty thought that she was talking to him – that she wanted _him_ out of his way.

Then Spartan tore from his stall.

"NO!" Ty shouted, reaching out a hand that Spartan clipped with his hindquarters. Wrist smarting, Ty took off after the horse on foot, only getting so far. Spartan's wild gallop far outpaced any gait that Ty could manage. "Come back!"

It did no good, but he'd known that it wouldn't. He watched the horse and rider speed out of sight, wondering what the hell he was supposed to do now. Lou was already angry with him and now Jack was going to crucify him for losing Spartan. He stood in the middle of the icy yard, feeling a ridiculous urge to break down, when he saw his saviour.

"Mallory!" Ty shouted, running up to the girl and her horse. "Mallory, I need your help."

"Did I just see Spartan?" Mallory asked, as incredulous as Ty felt.

"We have to get him back before Jack realizes he's gone."

Mallory shook her head. Nothing happened without Jack knowing. "I'll help you. Hold Copper."

Ty grabbed the horse's reins as Mallory kicked her feet free from the stirrups.

"Take him to the barn, put him in his stall, but don't untack him. Then, tack up Paint. I'm going to go tell Jack I'm taking you on a trail ride and we're borrowing Paint for it."

"You're a genius," Ty complimented her, sighing in relief.

"Um, tell me something I don't know."

Mallory scampered off toward the house and Ty brought Copper into the barn. He quickly turned the gelding into his stall and grabbed Paint, who he'd already groomed early this morning. Ty tacked the horse as quickly as his inexperience would let him. While it would be easy to track Spartan through the thick snow that still covered the Albertan countryside, it was going to be tough getting him back without Jack noticing. Or, at least, getting him back as close to as when Jack noticed as possible. At least Ty knew that the horse wouldn't get hurt; Amy would make sure of that.

At the thought of Amy, Ty had to clench his hands together and take a deep breath. He couldn't believe he'd said the things he had to her, and he had to make it right.

He'd find a way to make it right.

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	15. Chapter 15

Mallory burst back into the barn.

"Grab your helmet!" she shrieked at him. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, right."

Mallory took Paint's reins while Ty ran back to where he'd left his helmet. With shaking fingers, he pulled it onto his head. His legs ached as he thought about how hard it was going to get back in the saddle, but it wasn't like he had a choice. He had to go after Amy; he had to get Spartan back.

"Grab a lead line!" Mallory shouted. "Was Spartan wearing a halter?"

Ty grabbed the lead line and ran back to Mallory. "He should have been."

"Let's go."

She gave Paint's reins back to Ty, who then lead him out of the barn. Mallory helped him mount before she ran back to Copper. In a moment, she was on her horse, and they were turning toward the fields, following Spartan's prints through the snow.

"We are going to have to go faster, you know, if we have any hope of catching them."

Ty sucked in a deep breath. "I know."

"I'm going to let you hold onto the saddle horn," Mallory said, "just this once, if you _have_ to. Paint's a good horse, but he's not a trail pony. He won't just follow Copper blindly. You will have to steer him."

"Let's do this. We need to find Spartan."

Mallory moved Copper into a canter and, after a moment's hesitation, Ty did the same thing.

"Keep your heels down!" Mallory reminded him. "It'll help keep you balanced!"

Ty felt himself pitching from side to side with Paint's movements. He jammed his heels downward and found that it did help him a little bit, although it was difficult to remember to keep them pointing downward. He grabbed onto the saddle horn as he went flying forward, jabbing himself in the stomach. He dropped Paint's reins and the horse veered to the left. Ty grabbed for them, feeling like he was going to go flying to the ground and used the reins to jerk Paint to follow in Copper's footsteps.

"How are you doing?" Mallory asked.

"Fine!" Ty managed. He lifted his head up, trying to see if Spartan was in sight, but there was nothing but his footprints. Where the hell was Amy going? Was Amy even still with him? He hoped that she was, otherwise, they would never get Spartan back.

"Slow down!" Mallory gasped.

Instinctively, Ty yanked the reins back. Paint threw his head up in frustration, but Ty had no sympathy. He was glad to be walking.

"What is it?"

Mallory pointed at the prints on the ground, her finger then lifting to point into the trees. Ty hoped that it wouldn't get harder to see Spartan's trail. It was surely going to inhibit their progress. Ty forced Paint to step a little more quickly and he passed in front of Mallory. The young girl allowed him to take lead, she and her gelding plodding through the snow behind Paint and Ty. Paint's legs extended to fit into Spartan's previously carved path; either Spartan had a much longer stride than Paint had, or Amy had still been flying when she'd entered the woods. Again, Ty had to wonder if Amy was still with her horse – Ty couldn't see how it would be possible to stay on him without a saddle.

Ty felt like they'd been riding in the trees for hours when he heard it: sobbing. As much as he dared, he turned around to see Mallory's face. Her cheeks were bright red with cold and she swiped her hand under her nose, but it definitely wasn't her crying. No, Spartan and Amy had to be close. Ty listened for a minute. The crying seemed stationary.

"Stop," he whispered to Mallory.

"What?" she asked loudly.

"Shh." Ty said, halting Paint. "I see Spartan."

"Where?" Mallory's voice dropped significantly. She knew better than to startle a skittish horse.

"He sort of trusts me," Ty said, "So, I'm going to approach him on my own."

Mallory nodded. "Hand me Paint's reins. We'll wait right here for you."

Ty jumped from Paint, sinking further into the snow than he'd anticipated. His jeans became soaked up to his knees as he trudged over and handed Paint to Mallory. Then, he headed off to find Amy, hoping that she was far enough away that Mallory wouldn't hear him talking to her, but not so far that he would die of hypothermia before he found her. When his teeth began to chatter, he spotted the tall black horse. He was pawing at the snow, likely trying to get to the grass underneath. Amy was still perched on his back, sobbing. Even though she couldn't produce tears anymore, it was still the most heartbreaking sound Ty thought he'd ever heard.

"Hi," he whispered.

Her head flew up from Spartan's neck and, though she tried desperately to glare at him, her expression was far too distraught.

"I'm sorry," Ty said. "I shouldn't have –"

"I don't want to dead," Amy interrupted, devastation in every word. "I want to wake up, in my bed, in my house, and have breakfast with my mom and my grandpa and yell about how my sister hasn't visited in years and I want … I want to be alive, Ty."

"I know." He bit down on his lip, stopping himself from continuing. He couldn't say anything new. It wouldn't help him to point out everything she already knew: that her life could never go back to the way that it was, because her life was already gone.

"You said I didn't get a chance to say goodbye, but I do, because I'm _here_. I'm not wherever spirits go when they move on. I'm _here_. You know I'm here and you can let them know too. I can say goodbye and let them know I'm okay!"

Ty shook his head. "Look at this from my side, Amy. If I tell them anything like that, they'll think that I'm just trying to take advantage of them. You heard Lou in the barn earlier. It's going to end with me getting shipped off and then you might get stuck in limbo. It's not worth the risk."

"It's worth everything to me!" Amy screeched and Spartan shied at the sound of her voice.

"Hey, I know. I know," Ty said soothingly. "How about you let me put a lead line on Spartan and you let me take you guys home, okay? We can talk about it more later on. I promise we'll talk about it."

Amy nodded.

"Hi, Spartan," Ty said, keeping a careful eye on the animal as he approached. Spartan rolled his eyes and lifted his head, but he didn't flee as Ty thought he might. He clipped the line to Spartan's halter and he hoped the horse would follow him without a fight. "How was your ride?"

"It was fine." Amy readjusted herself on his back and wrapped her hands in his mane. "It was better than I expected it to be. I thought he was going to throw me. We're going to have to start working with him."

"Or not." Ty pulled Spartan forward and the horse, seemingly docile, walked along behind him.

"I'll work with him. I don't think you're quite on his level yet."

Ty agreed. They made it back to Mallory, who was twisting from side to side on Copper, and then she lifted her knees. She shivered in her thick coat.

"Oh, good, you've got him! He's not hurt, is he?"

Ty shook his head. "He seems fine. We'll take a better look once we get him back."

"Can you get up?" Mallory wondered as Ty took control of Paint again.

Ty kicked a small mountain of snow up next to Paint's side and then climbed it, easily boosting himself into the saddle.

"Lead us out, Mallory."

Mallory turned Copper and they marched out of the trees. Spartan trailed along at the end of his rope but didn't fight against it. Ty tied it around his saddle horn but he couldn't help keep his hand on it, just in case it broke free. He wished that he could talk to Amy, but she didn't look like he wanted to talk to him, which he couldn't blame her for.

"So, how did he get out anyway?"

Ty shrugged. "Can horses open stalls by themselves?"

"Some can but I didn't think that Spartan could. If he can, then Jack will have to put an extra bolt on the bottom of the door. Even if he _can't_, you should tell Jack that he can, just so that he doesn't think you were careless and left the stall door open because that would make him really mad and you don't want to make him really mad."

"So I should _lie_ to Jack?" Ty clarified. He wasn't above lying, but it just seemed extraordinarily stupid to lie to Jack, of all people.

"Fudge the truth," Mallory said dismissively. "But we have Spartan in one piece so hopefully he shouldn't be _too_ mad."

She didn't even sound like she believed herself, so Ty was more than apprehensive as they clattered into the yard, the horses stepping carefully across the slippery ground. Ty's nerves only grew when he spotted Jack standing on the front porch, but the old man never moved as he watched the three horses walk across his property. In fact, he turned around and went inside the house before Ty even dismounted.

Ty put Spartan away, Amy swearing that she would check him but that he seemed absolutely fine, and turned his attention to Paint. He lavished attention on the aging white and red horse simply because he was _Jack's_ horse. Finding Spartan hadn't taken as long as Ty had feared but trekking through the snow seemed to have taken a toll on Paint. Copper certainly seemed exhausted; he was falling asleep as Mallory ran a brush over him.

"Ty?" Amy called, and she poked her head up over Spartan's stall door. "There's a cut on his leg. It's not very big and I don't think it's hurting him but I'd still feel better if we bandaged it."

She walked through the side of the stall, gesturing for Ty to follow her into the office.

"What do you need?" he asked in a whisper.

"It sucks that I need to be hanging on to you in order to actually touch things … For the first time anyway." Amy grabbed Ty's upper arm and then she looked at him, frustrated. "I want both hands free!"

Ty grabbed her upper arm. "See if it works with me holding you."

She reached out her hands and happily grabbed a bottle, a small bowl, and then some leaves from a drying rack. Pulling Ty along behind her, she opened one of the kits that littered the room, pulling out a swath of sterile bandages, and then they went to stand against a small table.

"What are you doing?"

"Mom works with natural and herbal remedies rather than veterinary medicine. That's not to say that we don't use veterinary medicine, because we do recognize that sometimes it's better or sometimes the best option is for nature and science to work together," she added meaningfully, "but for the most part, Mom mixes her own remedies."

Amy picked a pestle up out of the small bowl, dropped the leaves into the bowl and began to grind the leaves. Once she was satisfied that they were small enough, she picked up the bottle and poured some of the liquid out of it and into the bowl.

"So this is for Spartan?"

Amy nodded. "It really does look like just a little nick on his leg, but I'd rather be safe than sorry when it comes to him. We'll have to work on getting him to let Scott go near him, just in case something ever happens to him again. He needs to learn how to trust."

"He's been doing a lot better," Ty said, defending the horse.

"Ty? Are you talking to yourself?"

Ty whipped around, freezing as he saw Mallory standing in the doorway of the office. Out of reflex, he dropped Amy's arm, but it didn't matter; she was still able to hold up the pestle and the bottle, one in each hand. He watched Mallory's eyes fix on the floating object and Ty wanted to shoot himself in the foot. First Lou, now Mallory? How careless was he today? He just hoped the little blonde girl wouldn't faint too.

"Oh my God!" Mallory cried. "_Oh my God!"_

"It's not what you think!" Ty blurted as Amy dropped both the pestle and bottle.

"_Oh. My. God._"

**Sorry this is a little late, but I had to work today! I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


	16. Chapter 16

"Amy?" Mallory gasped.

"Wait, _what_?" Ty exclaimed, because that was the last thing that he'd expected to hear.

"Amy," Mallory repeated.

Amy put down the little bowl and, shaking all over, walked toward Mallory. She paused in front of the short blonde, staring at her as if this were the first time that she were truly seeing her neighbour.

"Uh …" Ty tried to think of something that he could say. "Why are you … Um, I mean, Amy's the girl who died, right?"

"My mom's went through this phase where she was really into ghosts and stuff and I _know_ that they're real. Of course Amy would come back!" Mallory stretched out her hand and Amy gasped as it passed through her own stomach.

"Ghosts aren't real," Ty tried to argue. Amy looked over her shoulder at him, and Ty quieted at the look in her eye.

"Yes, they are!" Mallory shrieked, but then she ignored him completely to stare imploringly around the room. "Amy? I _knew_ you'd come back! I _knew_ you'd have to! Please, show me something else!"

"Don't," Ty mouthed silently at the specter.

Amy bit down heavily on her lip, and then she snaked her foot backward so that the tip of her toe was resting against Ty's boot. She hoped that the contact was enough; that she just had to be touching _some_ part of him. She reached her hand out, the edges of her fingers barely touching Mallory's cheek. The instant contact was made, Mallory gasped and shivered, her arms rising to protectively cradle her torso.

"You're here!" Mallory screeched in her usual excited tone, and then her dark brown eyes filled with tears. She threw her hands out in front of her again, but this time, she connected with something icy cold and invisible: Amy. "You're here!"

She burst out into tears and Amy tossed her arms around the young girl, who had been the little sister that she'd never have. Even though Mallory couldn't see her or hear her, Mallory simply _knew_ that this was Amy. She didn't stop to consider a more rational alternative than a ghost; didn't wonder if the strange loft boy was playing some sort of joke. There was a familiarity in the invisible hug that couldn't be mistaken.

Mallory's eyes met Ty's. "Do you know something?"

Ty nodded. What did he have left to lose now? Except everything, still. Mallory was not a quiet girl. Mallory would only complicate an already tangled web. But Amy had let her get this far and he couldn't completely let this go without doing some sort of damage control. What that damage control would be, Ty had absolutely no idea. He wasn't one for thinking on his feet; he was more of a doer. He ran to the problem and he fought the problem – or ran away from the problem if the problem was too massive. Those options weren't available to him this time around. He had to think of something.

"Just tell her the truth," Amy said, not letting go of Mallory. "Tell her everything."

_At what cost? _Ty wanted to demand, because Amy was blind to the consequences, as much as he tried to explain them to her.

"Let's go up to the loft," he suggested. "I don't want to be overheard."

"Spartan's leg!" Amy reminded him. She let go of Mallory, who grasped at the empty air, trying to regain her grip on the spirit. "It'll only take me a minute."

Ty sunk to the floor, leaning back against the desk as Amy picked up her small bowl and her ingredients again. He just didn't know what to do. This day had been too long already.

"Is there any way to make her hear me?" Amy asked.

Ty glanced at Mallory, who was inching closer and closer to Amy's workspace. Nothing was going to hurt now.

"No."

Mallory's head snapped around to face him. "So _you_ can talk to her? Can you see her?"

Ty nodded tiredly.

"Why didn't you say anything!? She's not _your_ family."

"Because I sound like a nut job or a con artist. Mallory, you know you can't tell anyone, right?"

"What do you mean? I _have_ to tell!"

"You _can't_!"

"They'd be so happy to know that she's here –"

"Everyone would think we were lying."

"Not me," Mallory insisted. "Jack would believe me! Lou doesn't believe anyone but herself, I know, but Jack always believes me!"

"But, Mallory, this is _crazy_," Ty pointed out.

"Not if I'm actually here," Amy retorted.

"They don't know you're here!"

"I can do what I did with Mallory and touch them and –"

"Have them think I'm a magician con artist!" Ty finished for her. "I can't handle having this conversation _again_. Amy, I'm sorry, but we can't."

"Come on, let's go to Spartan's stall," she said in a defeated sort of way. "This is ready."

Ty trailed behind Amy, Mallory behind him. The young girl hung back by Copper's stall. She was still too scared of the black horse to get much closer to him. Spartan's stall door appeared to open by itself and the horse lowered his head to greet someone that Mallory couldn't see. She inched a little to the left to see the medicine apply itself to Spartan's leg and the bandage wrap around Spartan's limb, seemingly without help. Mallory was a big believer in a lot of different things – ghosts, aliens, and (sometimes) conspiracy theories. There was more than enough evidence for her to know that Ty was telling her the truth and that it was Amy Fleming, doing everything for the horse that she had given her life for.

Copper's nose nudged Mallory's shoulder and she grabbed onto his big head, not knowing what to think or say. Amy's funeral had been the saddest day of her entire life. She had always considered Amy to be her big sister. Amy was the girl who had introduced her to Copper; who had helped Mallory saddle and mount him for the first time. Amy never considered Mallory annoying, no matter how many times she had insisted on being just like Amy, who was only a few years her senior. Mallory had loved Amy strongly, and to know that she was standing here, in this barn, so close but still so far away, was going to break her heart. Because Mallory had seen Amy lying pale in her coffin; she'd watched that coffin be lowered into the dirt and covered; she had visited the headstone that had too short of a lifetime engraved on it. Tears streaked down her cheeks, only to land on her horse's face. To Copper's credit, he remained motionless.

Mallory jumped as a hand touched her shoulder. She peeked up over Copper's nose to see Ty standing there awkwardly, a strange look of concern on his face. He hesitantly reached out a hand to rub her shoulder.

"Mallory –"

He was interrupted by the sound of a throat being cleared. Both Ty and Mallory turned to see Jack standing in the doorway, looking impossibly grumpy. He swept his eyes over the scene one more time before saying, "Ty, in the house. Mallory, I think it's best that Lou takes you home."

"Home? I thought I could stay for supper!" Mallory glanced anxiously up at Ty. She wanted to stay and talk about Amy; talk _to_ Amy. "Please, Jack? I know Lou's trying a new recipe and I know her cooking hasn't been great but I know she's getting better and I promised her my honest opinion and –"

"You can come over and try leftovers tomorrow. In the truck."

Mallory looked at Ty again.

"We'll talk tomorrow," he said in a low voice, hoping Jack couldn't hear him. "I promise."

Mallory wiped a stray tear away and kissed Copper on the nose. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Jack."

"Bye, Mallory."

"In the house," Jack repeated to Ty. "It appears that we need to talk about things."

"I'm really sorry about Spartan getting out, but he's perfectly fine!" Ty babbled as they crossed the yard. "Well, there's a very minor cut on his leg but we took care of it. Really, you shouldn't even need a vet to look at it. I don't know how he got out. Mallory said that some horses can open their stalls by themselves."

Jack held the screen door open for him and pointed him inside. Ty deflated and walked through Heartland's front door, thinking that this felt like being escorted to the principal's office or walking in to see his probation officer, both times knowing that he'd done something wrong. He carefully took off his shoes and boots and then sat down at the kitchen table. He looked up to Jack, only to have his eyes widen when he saw Amy walk in behind her grandfather.

"I can come in without you!" she celebrated and Ty ran his hands roughly over his face. He wished he could wake up in bed and redo this day all over again. Amy was far more stubborn than he'd ever thought to give her credit for, and he had an awful feeling that her presence right now was only something that was going to eventually bite him.

Jack sat at the table across from Ty. "I'm going to have Scott come and look at the horse tomorrow."

"Good," Amy agreed. "He needs a good check-up."

She flitted around the kitchen, sniffing at the pot on the stove, even though she was unable to open it and discover what was inside. Ty watched her, seeing her completely comfortable for the first time. There was a small smile lighting up her features as she puttered around her home.

"If there's anything wrong with him, I'll injure the same parts of you."

Amy's eyes widened at her grandfather's threat, but Ty wasn't surprised. He had a more accurate view of what Spartan meant to the Flemings than Amy did.

"He's fine and it won't happen again."

"I know it won't."

Ty's jaw locked at the hard edge in Jack's voice. Jack drummed his fingers on the table top, the wrinkles around his eyes tightening in thought. Ty studied his face, thinking that there was more to the expression than just Spartan.

"I know this might be difficult for you, but I think that you should try … try to get out more."

"Out more?" Ty repeated.

"Friends," Amy supplied helpfully. "He wants you to have friends."

"Lou said that you were acting strangely this morning and Mallory … Mallory is only twelve."

"Jack, Mallory and I have only spoken a handful of times –"

Jack threw his hand up, halting Ty's dialogue. "I'm not implying there's anything wrong with having a friendship. I want everyone to get along here. I'm saying that you need to find friends your own age. At least get off the property more than you do."

"I'll make an effort," Ty promised.

Jack seemed satisfied. "One last thing, and this is for your protection."

"I can protect myself," Ty protested, but Jack once more held his hand up.

"Carl is coming to visit on the first or the second of April. That means that Lou only has two weeks to prepare for his arrival."

"Oh, that's a long time. What's there to prepare?"

"Oh, no." Amy sighed. "Ty, she's going to turn on her psycho perfectionist mode."

Ty raised his eyebrows at this. When did Lou ever _leave_ her perfectionist mode?

"If she asks you to do something, just do it," Jack advised. "No matter how strange it seems."

"I will."

"How long's he staying?" Amy asked. "Hopefully he's here and gone."

"Um, how long's he here for?" Ty asked.

Jack looked grumpy as he said, "Two weeks, 'at the least'."

"Great," Amy grumbled, and she kicked at one of Ty's boots.

It toppled over and Jack turned in his chair at the sound, staring at the porch with a dark expression on his face.

"Oops," Amy chimed, looking at Ty innocently.

Ty rubbed his forehead. This day had just been one giant headache.

**I'm really sorry that I've been unable to update every week but my work schedule is very hectic and I'm finding it difficult to have time to just sit and write. Please be patient with me. I'm not giving up on this story.**

**I don't own anything recognizable.**

**~TLL~**


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